Enabling new technology projects (part 2)
Herve Baron
Oil & Gas Engineering expert, Author of "The Oil & Gas Engineering Guide" (Editions Technip)
This is the continuation to https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/enabling-new-technology-projects-part-1-herve-baron-gnome/?trackingId=7LXcmJ8QQT%2B7gvunMx5BPw%3D%3D
The new approach? Finding the most competitive solutions. Having all parties focussed on cost.
How do we instil such a cost conscious approach?
First let me tell you a true story that shows the usual approach.
I recently asked the PM of our Engineering contractor how he made sure the correct piping class was assigned to each line. He answered to me by telling that they have a system that alerts in case the piping class allocated to a line is too weak. I understand this to be a check made in the Excel file of the lines list that the design P and T of each line is within the limits of that particular piping class. Fair enough.
I asked the PM if there was the same system to alert if the allocated piping class was not too strong and if a lower one could be used. He said tre was no such system.
So we have a system in place to make sure we do not underdesign but have no system in place to make sure we do not overdesign.
Do we systematically err on the safe side?
This had no consequences in the Oil & Gas (rich) projects. For new technology projects it has!
We are likely embarking into a long journey to make things change. Let it start!
The conventional approach to cost consciousness, or “Value Engineering” as it is called, is to carry out a punctual exercise, a workshop, with numerous people attending.
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Did the “Value Engineering” workshops you attend achieved much? Were there real cost savings identified and implemented?
Please share the successful Value Engineering methodologies you have applied..
We commonly have a Project issues list. Same thing for a risk register. We address and track these issues to closure.
Do we also capture potential cost savings as they pop up? Do we maintain a register, recording potential cost savings as they come up, reviewing them in a second step to decide what to do: study further, discard, implement?
Isn’t this most essential thing to make new technology projects happen the least well attended to?
Potential cost savings take time and resources to study. How often do we devote them the same?
Are we, engineers, aware of the respective costs of different technical choices? How close are we to the market? How many exhibitions do we attend to meet suppliers? How often do we have open discussions with suppliers and subcontractors to understand the real cost drivers?
Engineering is developed with one discipline providing input to another, e.g., Process to Equipment, Instrument and Piping disciplines, Piping discipline providing input to Structural, etc. Are disciplines aware of the cost impact of the interface data they provide to other disciplines?
A recent good one is a Process engineer telling me he arbitrarily set the capacity of pumps emptying large vessels so that they would empty the vessels in 6 hours. These resulted in very large pumps that even fell outside the range of the manufacturers. Emptying the tanks in 6 hours was not at all a necessity. 12 hours would be just as good, allowing the pump capacity to be halved and to within the manufacturer’s range.
Einstein’s “the important thing is to never stop questioning” could not be more important.
Article to be continued….
Please share your thoughts/experience.
That's great to see you are trying to shifting this paradigm, tobe in the safe side! In new energy field as you told there would be a very competitive market and it demand reduce the cost in a real field. Such questions like that you asked we need to bring in daily design activity and it encourage me to elaborate that.
Engineer and Founder. Innovating the Design of Pipe Support Systems through Generative Design
3 个月And finally (part 3): 2. ???Design optimisation takes time – and engineering delays are expensive. Additional time taken (and changes made) in engineering results in delays of the issue of construction drawings. Its very easy for the savings made by design optimisation to be shadowed by the cost impact of late construction. What’s the solution here? We need smart software that provides engineers the ability to quickly optimise their designs. And here’s a shameless plug – that’s exactly what ADE Technology has been building for one of the largest repetitive design activities on project – pipe support design. ??? To finish off, here’s one question I would love know the answer to: What are the actual cost savings available to a project during detailed design if designers and engineers are cost aware and cost conscious in their daily activities?
Engineer and Founder. Innovating the Design of Pipe Support Systems through Generative Design
3 个月And my thoughts (part 2): When it comes being cost conscious, I would say two things: 1.?????To be cost conscious you first have to be cost aware: I don’t believe that design engineers at EPC contractors are educated (the fault lies with the company here) about the costs associated with the designs they are building. Software tools (or work instructions) that could be easily created on a project to make engineers aware of cost impacts haven’t been prioritised by engineering management. For example: How many piping designers would know the approximate impact (cost and time) of a butt weld? According to Page (1999) – a 14” Sch80 butt weld represents 8 labour hours. Choose your site labour rate (USD60/hour?) to get a cost impact of leaving that pup piece in of USD$500. Putting a number to it helps engineers re-evaluate the important of things like this. Taking 20 minutes of my time to improve the design and save $500 on site feels important. Without knowing the cost impact, all I know is that I’m busy and don’t have any spare time to improve the design.
Engineer and Founder. Innovating the Design of Pipe Support Systems through Generative Design
3 个月Here’s my thoughts on this: (part 1) We do front end load projects to drive costs down at the beginning of projects. During detailed design these major decisions can’t be changed. But engineers must always take responsibility for the costs that they can control. I’m sure we?all heard the story of how Toyota become a market leader – through this culture of continuous improvement and waste reduction which is embedded into the Toyota Production System.
Integrity Management
3 个月A pertinent analysis. No matter how advanced the technology is, the human factor is the place where it will eventually be based or need interpretation. This human factor is the experience gained over many years in the sector. The value of human life in the series of experiences underlying this situation, the ability to make the appropriate decision at the intersection of capex expenses and this life, and the support of senior management to these decisions can give a better idea of the applicability of new technologies.