Model Planning and Controlling System for EPC of Industrial Projects

It’s impossible to engineer and construct an industrial facility without some overlap of phases. Engineering often overlaps with procurement for vendor-engineered equipment, and with construction, for long time-phased projects. To the owner, life cycle costs are more important than design-construction costs, and these costs are balanced against potential revenues. The owner will directly overlap phases, to reduce overhead and time-value of investment costs, but such savings may be eroded by the costs of rework, idle crews, premium pay, team relations, morale, quality, and operational reliability. The approach described in this report is believed to be the one with the optimum overlap. No official claims are made, but users of the process feel comfortable with time savings in the order of 15% compared to the sequential approach, and construction labor savings as high as 30% compared to other fast-track options. Labor savings result from the detailed planning (plans & specs available at start of construction), materials availability when needed (procurement tracking and materials management), and productivity improvement. For the system to work, construction must defer to the needs of start-up, engineering must defer to the needs of procurement and construction, and procurement must defer to the needs of construction. There must be a continuous team approach to planning and execution that involves the owner, operator, engineer, procurement group, and constructor.