- Energy & Resources, Project Dashboards
Our client, a leading UK energy group, is responsible for the design of the new nuclear power plant at Hinkley Point C, a project costing £18bn. The construction of the site will take a total of 11 years and will deliver 7% of the UK’s total electricity demand for the next 50+ years. This project is the first of a major government commitment to nuclear energy, with Sizewell C in Suffolk also on the horizon.
Projects of this nature are highly complex due to the associated size and risks, including the containment of nuclear materials and the large workforce required to deliver on construction. These projects require regular, reliable performance indicators to advise strategic decisions that ensure key project milestones are met.
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Challenges of setting up KPIs in Nuclear
With the scale of this project being so large, visibility of progress is critical. Key delivery milestones, particularly those related to the handover of design packages to construction, must be met to avoid delays and cost overruns. However, the existing performance reporting process was manually intensive and inefficient:
- Over 2,200 key tasks needed to be tracked and updated monthly.
- The process required a full day of manual effort each month, with little capacity for continuous improvement.
- On top of this, the group's end client frequently requested further functionality and deliverable changes to the KPIs.
There was a clear need for automation, scalability, and improved insight. MIGSO-PCUBED (MP) were selected to help based on their proven expertise in performance reporting and scheduling, combined with the ability to rapidly mobilise and integrate into a high-pressure delivery environment.
In large-scale nuclear projects, efficiency is critical. The ability to produce KPIs quickly and accurately improves project visibility by showing progress and enabling earlier identification of delivery risks. By streamlining the reporting process, MP empowered the client to make faster, data-driven decisions, helping to maintain momentum and reduce the likelihood of delays across complex project phases.
Automating the KPI process
Thanks to their global team of consultants, MP worked closely with co-workers experienced in Excel Macros and Visual Basic for Applications (VBA), who also worked with the client's central teams in the UK and France. This allowed the team to collaborate and develop advanced fit-for-purpose automation tools.
Key activities included:
- Collaborative milestone mapping: MP worked with stakeholders to identify and validate over 2,220 strategic milestones requiring KPI tracking, ensuring full alignment with project priorities.
- Automation of reporting processes: Using advanced Excel Macros and VBA scripting, the team built a scalable tool to automate the extraction and aggregation of KPI data from the scheduling system, replacing a time-consuming manual process.
- Client upskilling and knowledge transfer: To ensure long-term sustainability, MP developed a comprehensive user guide detailing the tool’s data logic, update processes, and functionality. MP actively trained client team members, equipping them with the skills and confidence to manage, maintain, and enhance the tool independently.
- Continuous improvement through agile delivery: Enhancement requests from the end client were prioritised using a Kanban-based workflow, allowing MP to implement iterative updates in collaboration with the scheduling team, responding quickly to changing needs.
Delivering improvements and new capabilities
The automation and tool development delivered measurable improvements, including:
- 12 days of manual effort saved annually, freeing up valuable resources.
- Live-access KPI dashboards, allowing the client to extract key strategic data at anytime.
- Enhanced reporting on individual design teams, improving visibility and accountability.
- Faster prioritisation for construction teams, reducing project delays and improving decision-making.
This new capability has transformed how performance is monitored across the programme. With real-time access and greater transparency, the client can now make faster, more informed decisions, helping keep the project on track and reducing risk.
Moreover, this approach is scalable, offering a blueprint for automating KPI processes on future projects across the nuclear and broader infrastructure sectors.
Read also:
Discover how we embedded a PMO team of 30+ controllers, schedulers, risk managers and change specialists across UK and France to streamline controls and delivery for Hinkley Point C's detailed design phase.
Thank you Declan Pugh for your contribution to this article.
Key results
The automation and tool development delivered measurable improvements, including:
- 12 days of manual effort saved annually, freeing up valuable resources.
- Live-access KPI dashboards, allowing the client to extract key strategic data at anytime.
- Enhanced reporting on individual design teams, improving visibility and accountability.
- Faster prioritisation for construction teams, reducing project delays and improving decision-making.
