On one project — actually on four — the same thing happened.
Engineering was chasing perfection. Or stretching the work. Either way, the design kept moving.
Procurement had already locked material against AFC 1. By the time AFC 3 was issued, the orders were placed. The equipment was already coming.
Field couldn't wait. Work Pack A material started disappearing into Work Pack C. Crews kept moving. Progress still looked acceptable. The weekly report said so.
Nobody flagged it. Each decision was locally rational. Collectively, they were consuming float that no longer existed.
Then a night shift appeared.
Small crew. Quiet.
Nobody questioned it.
It solved a problem. Materials were staged and ready every morning.
Dayshift productivity appeared to improve.
The project had quietly built an entire parallel labour structure whose sole purpose was compensating for a visibility failure nobody had formally acknowledged.
It showed up on the payroll. Not on the risk register. At least not yet.
By the time leadership recognised the pattern, the float was gone. The extension wasn't a forecast anymore. It was already baked in. The reports just hadn't caught up yet.
This happened in Africa, Iraq. In Kazakhstan. On a major LNG project in Australia.
Different clients. Different contractors. Same sequence.
Most reporting systems never register these moments as risk signals. By the time they surface, the extension is usually already inevitable.
How many people on your current project exist purely to compensate for a problem nobody has formally acknowledged yet?
