The Anadarko Oil Company of Houston, Texas is the leading company in the development of the new Mozambique gas fields. It is estimated that Mozambique will become the third largest producer of natural gas in the world within the next 7 to 10 years. Anadarko built and leased a new building for its headquarters in Maputo, Mozambique. The building is characterized by dramatic views of Maputo City and the Indian Ocean. The offices are divided into private, semiprivate, and shared open space offices. Anadarko furnished the beautiful space with the new award-winning District collection from the Teknion company. The District collection is characterized by its efficient use of space and its state of the art contemporary design. Along with the District collection, Anadarko chose Teknion’s state-of-the-art air ergonomic seating collection, Contessa.
T4 was sub-contracted to do the local installation management. T4 was no stranger to Mozambique. T4’s predecessor company had already furnished the eight story USAID building in 2002, at the time, one of the newest constructions in the country for several years.
For this project, T4 and its local subcontractor unloaded and and staged fourteen 40-foot ocean containers of furniture. Over the course of three weeks, T4 Logistics completed the installation in phases. The building itself was not yet complete when the project began. Painting, finish work, carpeting, and HVAC were still underway. In order to work alongside the ongoing construction, T4 employed a multiple-task methodology of installation. The installation of each floor had to be completed before moving to the next to allow the trades to finish the floors. T4 prefers a single task approach to modular furniture installation in which a single modular installation task is completed for the entire facility. From the years of experience in developing countries, T4 has found that the single task methodology is a far more efficient method of installation than the multiple task method that T4 had to use Anadarko project. However, not all facilities and lend itself to the T4 approach. A multiple-task technique is a less efficient method of installation, but in some instances – such as the Anadarko headquarters in Maputo – it was the only option. The advantage of the multiple-task tactic was that each floor was complete and ready to occupy before moving to the next floor. Over the course of three weeks, T4’s 20 person team successfully and efficiently outfitted the building and allowed Anadarko to meet its move in schedule.
