Background
The Medupi power station construction was a joint venture carried out in aims of fulfilling the power shortfall in South Africa. There was a great demand for Electrical Supply through out South Africa which translated in wide spread regular nationwide power cuts. Load shedding was regularly scheduled, where electricity supply was stopped for non-overlapping periods causing nationwide blackouts. Businesses were asked to turn of non-essential lighting and equipment. This practice by Eskom was even forced upon mines such operated by people such as Anglo American, BHP Billiton and Xstrata.
With South Africa being one of the leading producers of coal Eskom decided that …show more content…
This called for the merger/ Joint venture engagement of three of the leading companies in the engineer field Murray & Roberts Holding s Ltd, Aveng Limited and Concor Holdings. Murray and Roberts Holding primarily worked in the supply of engineering services and construction services through subsidiaries, they offered many services which include but are not limited to civil engineering, mining, mechanical and process engineering, general building and construction services and a whole portfolio of other services. It was a company that staffed in excess of 40,000 employees and who’s headquarters is located in Bedfordview South Africa which has been in business for over a 109 years. The company can be seen playing important roles in construction as they were involved in 2010 FIFA World Cup as it was involved in the Gautrain Rail link project and Green Point Stadium. Murray & Roberts holding’s Ltd went on to acquire Concor in …show more content…
The contract included a turbine island, comprising steam turbines, generators, associated air cooled condensers, related turbine, island auxiliary equipment and feed water heating plants, including turnkey supply for turbine hall. The Boiler contract of R33.6 billion was then issued to Hitachi power and Hitachi Power Europe.
The Management and control of all stakeholders is key to completing the project successfully so management decided that due to the duration and uniqueness of the project, the project could not be carried out like any other. They realized that due to the duration being 5 to 7 years versus the usual three the site operations and structure must be fabricated to deal with the change in environment. Personnel that would usually be located offsite would now be located at the site in offices referred to as the “ The White House”, there would now be a head office on site. The merger of three companies lead to the challenge of integrating cultures, management must now try to find away to get over issues such as different job descriptions, benefits, organization structures. It was felt that the only way to surpass this hurdle was to include all stakeholders, management committee members of the venture decided to hold a strategy workshop. The vision of “We bring power to the nation” is what was being