Description
Management in all business and organizational activities is the act of coordinating the efforts of people to accomplish desired goals and objectives using available resources efficiently and effectively. Management comprises planning, organizing, staffing, leading or directing, and controlling an organization (a group of one or more people or entities) or effort for the purpose of accomplishing a goal.
FEATURE
Materials Management:
Damodara U. Kini, P.E.
FTEN OVERLOOKED AS A COST SOLUTION, SUCCESSFULLY MANAGING MATERIALS CAN LEAD TO GREATER SAVINGS.
O
Damodara U. Kini is procurement manager at Raytheon, Engineers & Constructors, in Denver.
A successful engineering and construction project ful?lls the customer’s needs while profiting the engineering company. In the current business environment, money is tight and clients are looking for engineering companies that can provide the best product at the lowest cost. Engineering solutions to this problem include using complex analytical tools to quickly create ef?cient designs, utilizing composite materials and custom designing equipment for optimum output. However, the area most often overlooked in this effort is materials management, which is generally considered to be a support function in engineering companies. Considering that for a typical industrial facility 10% to 15% of the total cost is for engineering design and 50% to 60% is for equipment and materials, it is obvious that obtaining the equipment and materials at the lowest possible cost will provide the greatest savings. Materials management is a management system that integrates the traditional areas of purchasing, expediting and controlling the progress of the vendor. It is an essential part of project management and can be integrated with engineering to provide an end product that meets the client’s needs and is cost effective. A typical engineer/procure/construct (EPC) project can be divided into seven distinct
stages, during which the project manager must ensure a materials management focus among the project management team. The seven stages are planning, preliminary design, ?nal design, procurement, vendor control, construction and closeout.
Planning
Organization. An effective organization— essential for materials management to succeed on an EPC project—should de?ne the project management team, show the functional relationships and develop a cohesive project team. Shown on the next page is a typical organization chart. The project management team, under the project manager’s leadership, is composed of the engineering manager, the materials manager, the construction manager and the cost and scheduling manager. Within the project organization, the materials manager reports directly to the project manager and is at the same level as the engineering manager. Without this relationship, it would be impossible to provide a materials management focus to the project team. The disciplines that report to each person on the management team are listed in the second level of boxes. This organization method fosters teamwork through close coop-
30 / JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT IN ENGINEERING / JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1999
FEATURE
eration and open communications between the disciplines. Project mission. The project mission statement describes goals using the prime contract requirements negotiated with the customer. Ideally, the mission should be brief enough to ?t on one page so that a copy can be given to every member of the project team. An EPC project’s purpose is to create a product-producing facility that will generate revenue for the customer. The materials management focus on the mission statement must be clear when de?ning how the facility will be completed: Lowest cost for completion is the mission. While the best design is not the mission, the facility must meet the customer’s speci?ed requirements. The key word that describes the customer’s needs is ‘‘speci?ed,’’ because the most common reason for exceeding the project budget is the addition of enhancements not required by the customer’s contract. If the project is based on a ?rm price contract, the cost of such enhancements will reduce the pro?t for the engineering company. Construction approach and subcontracting plan. Deciding how construction will be accomplished is crucial in achieving the materials management goals on any EPC project. One method is to use the engineering company’s own personnel for construction without subcontracting any work, while the other extreme is to subcontract all construction and perform construction management only. A mix of the two approaches is commonly used where some of the work is subcontracted to utilize the special expertise of certain subcontractors or to spread the construction risk among several subcontractors. During the planning stage, the subcontracted work must be clearly de?ned so that the project schedule and engineering design can be tailored to ?t the subcontracting needs. The gen-
eral scope of the subcontracts should be developed, including a list of the equipment and materials to be furnished by subcontractors. Usually, the equipment with longer delivery lead times is procured by the engineering company, while the minor equipment and bulk materials may be furnished by the subcontractors. The project schedule is then developed to combine subcontracted work with the delivery and installation of the long lead equipment.
Preliminary design
The ?rst step in the design of industrial facilities is usually the preliminary design. During this process, design needs to be developed to a point where suf?cient information is available for starting detailed design. During this stage of the project, a materials management focus requires a concentrated effort on the definition of materials and equipment while minimizing the cost of design. In order to achieve this objective, there are several critical steps. The engineering manager needs to ensure that the process ?ow diagrams and preliminary de?nition of major equipment conforms to the speci?ed requirements of the customer’s contract. Using this preliminary design, the project management team makes a list of equipment that accounts for the majority of equipment and materials cost. This list usually includes the main process equipment, such as the turbine generator for a power plant, and such other items as pumps, compressors, pressure vessels, fans, chillers, air handling units and conveyors. Vendors are asked to provide information about selected equipment so that physical boundaries for the equipment can be determined. These boundaries will also dictate the critical interface points, such as the location of the input and output and electrical terminations. The information from the vendors is
JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT IN ENGINEERING / JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1999 / 31
FEATURE
based on standard models that can meet the speci?ed performance characteristics so that little or no custom design is required. Including this information in the drawings and the preparation of performance speci?cations will maximize competition and result in a market-driven low price. Input from the vendors should also include preliminary information on delivery lead times. At the conclusion of preliminary design, the engineering manager should compare the result with the project mission and the contract with the customer to ensure that it fully conforms to the previously set objectives. The design should be frozen at this time, with only minor revisions allowed to add speci?c equipment characteristics when vendor data become available during ?nal design. The challenge for the project manager and the project management team is to hold ?rm to the process design completed during the preliminary design stage while completing drawings, speci?cations and other ?nal design documents.
Final design
manager and the construction manager need to work together to ensure that the construction drawings show suf?cient information, de?ning the boundaries between subcontracts that were planned earlier in the project. This step ensures that the minimum number of drawings needed to de?ne any particular subcontract can be separated and provided to the bidders. It also reduces bidding time and questions about the scope of work by the bidders. • Prepare the construction speci?cations tailored to the subcontracts planned. For example, if the steel erection and equipment installation are to be included in one subcontract, the appropriate speci?cations can be packaged in one document. This type of packaging helps reduce the documentation that bidders need to review and results in reduced bidding time.
Procurement
During this stage, the project team uses the information from the preliminary design to prepare the drawings, speci?cations and other data required for construction and for the procurement of equipment and materials. The project team will need to concentrate on the following to ensure a materials management focus: • Develop performance speci?cations for equipment to obtain competitive proposals from several vendors so that the best ?t can be selected at the lowest price. This should be feasible because the layouts were developed and process conditions established during preliminary design based on vendor input. The objective is to encourage vendors to provide standard models that meet or exceed the required performance while avoiding custom-designed features. Utilizing standard models will result in lower costs for spare parts and better technical support from the vendor for maintenance. It may even be feasible to eliminate warehousing costs for the spare parts if the manufacturer can supply these standard spare parts in a timely manner. • Avoid ?ne-tuning or improving the preliminary design. The project team must remember that the design was frozen at the conclusion of the preliminary phase and that it meets the needs of the customer. • The engineering manager, the materials
32 / JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT IN ENGINEERING / JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1999
Getting the best value for the price. The best way to procure equipment and materials is through a competitive bidding process that culminates in a negotiated price to meet all speci?ed requirements. The price might not be the low bid, but would be the best price that included the cost of such factors as maintenance and operating costs. Competition is best achieved through performance speci?cations that de?ne the requirements for the equipment in a generic manner so that all quali?ed manufacturers in the market have an equal chance of getting the order. This is facilitated by obtaining vendor input during preliminary design to ensure that the design does not favor any particular manufacturer. Further steps to maintain a materials management focus during procurement are as follows: • The request for proposal should state that the bidder must propose a standard model that meets or exceeds the performance requirements in the speci?cations and should explicitly discourage custom designs. • Because standard models are to be used, data submittals from the vendor should be kept to a minimum. This will reduce vendor costs for the preparation of the data and engineering costs to review the data. It will also reduce incidental costs, such as those for data control, for the engineering company. • Critical information, such as foundation details, should be submitted early to facilitate ?nalization of the design. Vendors shouldn’t have problems with this requirement because details for standard models are usually readily available. The fabrication schedule should also
FEATURE
be required early for input into the construction schedule. • Bidders should provide the best possible deliveries to meet the schedule, including the storage of equipment if completed earlier than needed. • Installation support and start-up assistance should be solicited as part of the proposal. This ensures that construction or start-up will not be delayed by uncertainties regarding vendor instructions. • Brief, speci?c proposals should be encouraged to reduce the time for proposal evaluation. Crisply written performance speci?cations during ?nal design will make this possible. • Comparison of the proposals should focus on conformance to the performance requirements stated in the request for proposal and avoid inclusion of any enhancements. The project team must focus on meeting the customer’s speci?ed needs de?ned in the performance requirements. Optimizing the construction schedule. Vendor input during preliminary design will include delivery lead times that are used to develop a preliminary construction schedule. As vendor proposals are received, the more accurate information is used to update the schedule. When vendor selections are complete, the schedule is optimized to meet construction needs. During this process, the project team will need to address the following materials management issues: • Vendor equipment fabrication schedules, which are submitted shortly after the award, will re?ne the schedule and make construction easier. • Using manufacturer’s standard models will result in delivery dates that are much more reliable than those for custom-engineered equipment. • Timing the delivery of the equipment so that it can be unloaded directly onto its foundation will avoid warehousing and multiple handling. • Subcontractors should be scheduled to ensure smooth ?ow between boundaries of the subcontracts. • Showing subcontract milestones on the schedule will facilitate management and change control. • Scheduling deliveries of materials will minimize warehousing as much as possible. Some warehousing will be required for long lead items and items requiring assembly prior to installation. Developing tight scopes of work for subcontracts. While subcontracts allow the project to spread the risk of construction, this could be negated by poor management of subcontracts. The key to effective subcontract management is to de?ne the scope in clear, speci?c terms in order to avoid changes that could have an adverse effect on the schedule and cost. With the boundaries de?ned on the drawings, congested areas can be color coded to show responsibility between subcontractors. The scope should be described in a narrative that states how boundary interfaces are handled and who is responsible. It should include objective milestones, the schedule for achieving those milestones and any penalties for not achieving them. If the subcontractor is responsible for any design, the scope should de?ne the outcome of the design and not how the design is to be performed. Again, the submittals required from the subcontractor should be kept to a minimum.
Vendor control
Avoiding changes during vendor drawing review. During this stage of the project, it is very easy for unintentional vendor scope changes to occur through comments on the vendor drawings. Simple comments can result in signi?cant changes to the equipment and subcontractor scope. It is essential for the reviewer of vendor data to keep comments to a minimum, especially when the use of performance speci?cations makes the supplier responsible for the design. As long as the equipment meets the performance criteria and space boundaries, no comments should be necessary. The materials management objective during this stage of the project is to minimize the time spent on vendor drawing review and to ensure that all required submittals are received from the vendors in a timely manner. Expediting vendors. The materials management focus for expediting is twofold. First, critical data from vendors have to be expedited and received as early as possible after order issue to avoid delaying the design. Second, fabrication and deliveries need to be expedited to meet the construction schedule. The amount of shop expediting is likely to be less owing to the use of standard equipment models with established manufacturing practices. For complex equipment, construction personnel should visit the manufacturing facility to become familiar with the details of ?eld assembly and installation. Contacting the vendors and obtaining the status of progress at frequent intervals are esJOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT IN ENGINEERING / JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1999 / 33
FEATURE
sential to ensuring that commitments will be met. Setting up a transportation agreement with one carrier to ship all equipment and material will reduce costs and allow greater shipment control. With a single party responsible for transportation, it will be easier to make temporary arrangements to hold equipment for short periods of time until the applicable foundation or support is ready. This will avoid the costs of handling the same equipment more than once.
Construction
ulating how much material is issued for construction will also minimize waste. Obtaining vendor assistance during installation and start-up. Unclear instructions from the vendor often delay installation and start-up. It is usually cost effective for vendors’ technical representatives to provide guidance to the construction personnel.
Closeout
Managing subcontractors to avoid changes. Subcontracts enable the engineering company to share construction risk and the use of special expertise for such factors as ?re protection, security and insulation. Specialty subcontractors can reduce work costs compared with performing the work with the company’s own forces. Change avoidance is best achieved by maintaining good communications with the subcontractors. Periodic meetings with key subcontractors to identify potential problems and develop mutually bene?cial solutions are the best way to minimize changes. The relationship with ?rm price subcontractors will be adversarial because the only way for them to maximize their returns is through change orders. Using detailed schedules that have objective, measurable milestones that determine payment is the best way to account for the subcontractor’s progress and for minimizing claims. Receiving and warehousing. The objective during this stage of the project is to properly account for the equipment and material delivered to the site and locate it within the warehouse so that it is readily available when needed by construction. This will avoid duplicate orders for materials already on hand. Reg-
Disposition of surplus material. Using standard materials will make it easier to dispose of surplus materials because vendors will be more likely to reduce restocking charges if they have a better chance of resale. Alternatively, the engineering company can also sell the surplus because there should be a greater market for standard items. Feedback and lessons learned. An effective system must have a feedback loop to analyze what lessons were learned from the project. An objective review of the materials management process should be performed at the end of an EPC project to identify potential areas for improvement and take credit for the accomplishments. Focusing on materials management for engineer/procure/construct projects will provide signi?cant bene?ts to the engineering company and its customer in several ways. The customer will get exactly what he or she speci?ed, leading to satis?ed customers and repeat business. The engineering company will pro?t through a clear focus on the items that drive the costs, equipment and materials. The company’s workforce will be more motivated as part of a project that has a well-de?ned organization and mission. Finally, improved relationships with major suppliers will lead to better pricing. Effective implementation of the materials management process is the key to successful project management.
34 / JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT IN ENGINEERING / JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1999
doc_550520625.pdf
Management in all business and organizational activities is the act of coordinating the efforts of people to accomplish desired goals and objectives using available resources efficiently and effectively. Management comprises planning, organizing, staffing, leading or directing, and controlling an organization (a group of one or more people or entities) or effort for the purpose of accomplishing a goal.
FEATURE
Materials Management:
Damodara U. Kini, P.E.
FTEN OVERLOOKED AS A COST SOLUTION, SUCCESSFULLY MANAGING MATERIALS CAN LEAD TO GREATER SAVINGS.
O
Damodara U. Kini is procurement manager at Raytheon, Engineers & Constructors, in Denver.
A successful engineering and construction project ful?lls the customer’s needs while profiting the engineering company. In the current business environment, money is tight and clients are looking for engineering companies that can provide the best product at the lowest cost. Engineering solutions to this problem include using complex analytical tools to quickly create ef?cient designs, utilizing composite materials and custom designing equipment for optimum output. However, the area most often overlooked in this effort is materials management, which is generally considered to be a support function in engineering companies. Considering that for a typical industrial facility 10% to 15% of the total cost is for engineering design and 50% to 60% is for equipment and materials, it is obvious that obtaining the equipment and materials at the lowest possible cost will provide the greatest savings. Materials management is a management system that integrates the traditional areas of purchasing, expediting and controlling the progress of the vendor. It is an essential part of project management and can be integrated with engineering to provide an end product that meets the client’s needs and is cost effective. A typical engineer/procure/construct (EPC) project can be divided into seven distinct
stages, during which the project manager must ensure a materials management focus among the project management team. The seven stages are planning, preliminary design, ?nal design, procurement, vendor control, construction and closeout.
Planning
Organization. An effective organization— essential for materials management to succeed on an EPC project—should de?ne the project management team, show the functional relationships and develop a cohesive project team. Shown on the next page is a typical organization chart. The project management team, under the project manager’s leadership, is composed of the engineering manager, the materials manager, the construction manager and the cost and scheduling manager. Within the project organization, the materials manager reports directly to the project manager and is at the same level as the engineering manager. Without this relationship, it would be impossible to provide a materials management focus to the project team. The disciplines that report to each person on the management team are listed in the second level of boxes. This organization method fosters teamwork through close coop-
30 / JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT IN ENGINEERING / JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1999
FEATURE
eration and open communications between the disciplines. Project mission. The project mission statement describes goals using the prime contract requirements negotiated with the customer. Ideally, the mission should be brief enough to ?t on one page so that a copy can be given to every member of the project team. An EPC project’s purpose is to create a product-producing facility that will generate revenue for the customer. The materials management focus on the mission statement must be clear when de?ning how the facility will be completed: Lowest cost for completion is the mission. While the best design is not the mission, the facility must meet the customer’s speci?ed requirements. The key word that describes the customer’s needs is ‘‘speci?ed,’’ because the most common reason for exceeding the project budget is the addition of enhancements not required by the customer’s contract. If the project is based on a ?rm price contract, the cost of such enhancements will reduce the pro?t for the engineering company. Construction approach and subcontracting plan. Deciding how construction will be accomplished is crucial in achieving the materials management goals on any EPC project. One method is to use the engineering company’s own personnel for construction without subcontracting any work, while the other extreme is to subcontract all construction and perform construction management only. A mix of the two approaches is commonly used where some of the work is subcontracted to utilize the special expertise of certain subcontractors or to spread the construction risk among several subcontractors. During the planning stage, the subcontracted work must be clearly de?ned so that the project schedule and engineering design can be tailored to ?t the subcontracting needs. The gen-
eral scope of the subcontracts should be developed, including a list of the equipment and materials to be furnished by subcontractors. Usually, the equipment with longer delivery lead times is procured by the engineering company, while the minor equipment and bulk materials may be furnished by the subcontractors. The project schedule is then developed to combine subcontracted work with the delivery and installation of the long lead equipment.
Preliminary design
The ?rst step in the design of industrial facilities is usually the preliminary design. During this process, design needs to be developed to a point where suf?cient information is available for starting detailed design. During this stage of the project, a materials management focus requires a concentrated effort on the definition of materials and equipment while minimizing the cost of design. In order to achieve this objective, there are several critical steps. The engineering manager needs to ensure that the process ?ow diagrams and preliminary de?nition of major equipment conforms to the speci?ed requirements of the customer’s contract. Using this preliminary design, the project management team makes a list of equipment that accounts for the majority of equipment and materials cost. This list usually includes the main process equipment, such as the turbine generator for a power plant, and such other items as pumps, compressors, pressure vessels, fans, chillers, air handling units and conveyors. Vendors are asked to provide information about selected equipment so that physical boundaries for the equipment can be determined. These boundaries will also dictate the critical interface points, such as the location of the input and output and electrical terminations. The information from the vendors is
JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT IN ENGINEERING / JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1999 / 31
FEATURE
based on standard models that can meet the speci?ed performance characteristics so that little or no custom design is required. Including this information in the drawings and the preparation of performance speci?cations will maximize competition and result in a market-driven low price. Input from the vendors should also include preliminary information on delivery lead times. At the conclusion of preliminary design, the engineering manager should compare the result with the project mission and the contract with the customer to ensure that it fully conforms to the previously set objectives. The design should be frozen at this time, with only minor revisions allowed to add speci?c equipment characteristics when vendor data become available during ?nal design. The challenge for the project manager and the project management team is to hold ?rm to the process design completed during the preliminary design stage while completing drawings, speci?cations and other ?nal design documents.
Final design
manager and the construction manager need to work together to ensure that the construction drawings show suf?cient information, de?ning the boundaries between subcontracts that were planned earlier in the project. This step ensures that the minimum number of drawings needed to de?ne any particular subcontract can be separated and provided to the bidders. It also reduces bidding time and questions about the scope of work by the bidders. • Prepare the construction speci?cations tailored to the subcontracts planned. For example, if the steel erection and equipment installation are to be included in one subcontract, the appropriate speci?cations can be packaged in one document. This type of packaging helps reduce the documentation that bidders need to review and results in reduced bidding time.
Procurement
During this stage, the project team uses the information from the preliminary design to prepare the drawings, speci?cations and other data required for construction and for the procurement of equipment and materials. The project team will need to concentrate on the following to ensure a materials management focus: • Develop performance speci?cations for equipment to obtain competitive proposals from several vendors so that the best ?t can be selected at the lowest price. This should be feasible because the layouts were developed and process conditions established during preliminary design based on vendor input. The objective is to encourage vendors to provide standard models that meet or exceed the required performance while avoiding custom-designed features. Utilizing standard models will result in lower costs for spare parts and better technical support from the vendor for maintenance. It may even be feasible to eliminate warehousing costs for the spare parts if the manufacturer can supply these standard spare parts in a timely manner. • Avoid ?ne-tuning or improving the preliminary design. The project team must remember that the design was frozen at the conclusion of the preliminary phase and that it meets the needs of the customer. • The engineering manager, the materials
32 / JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT IN ENGINEERING / JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1999
Getting the best value for the price. The best way to procure equipment and materials is through a competitive bidding process that culminates in a negotiated price to meet all speci?ed requirements. The price might not be the low bid, but would be the best price that included the cost of such factors as maintenance and operating costs. Competition is best achieved through performance speci?cations that de?ne the requirements for the equipment in a generic manner so that all quali?ed manufacturers in the market have an equal chance of getting the order. This is facilitated by obtaining vendor input during preliminary design to ensure that the design does not favor any particular manufacturer. Further steps to maintain a materials management focus during procurement are as follows: • The request for proposal should state that the bidder must propose a standard model that meets or exceeds the performance requirements in the speci?cations and should explicitly discourage custom designs. • Because standard models are to be used, data submittals from the vendor should be kept to a minimum. This will reduce vendor costs for the preparation of the data and engineering costs to review the data. It will also reduce incidental costs, such as those for data control, for the engineering company. • Critical information, such as foundation details, should be submitted early to facilitate ?nalization of the design. Vendors shouldn’t have problems with this requirement because details for standard models are usually readily available. The fabrication schedule should also
FEATURE
be required early for input into the construction schedule. • Bidders should provide the best possible deliveries to meet the schedule, including the storage of equipment if completed earlier than needed. • Installation support and start-up assistance should be solicited as part of the proposal. This ensures that construction or start-up will not be delayed by uncertainties regarding vendor instructions. • Brief, speci?c proposals should be encouraged to reduce the time for proposal evaluation. Crisply written performance speci?cations during ?nal design will make this possible. • Comparison of the proposals should focus on conformance to the performance requirements stated in the request for proposal and avoid inclusion of any enhancements. The project team must focus on meeting the customer’s speci?ed needs de?ned in the performance requirements. Optimizing the construction schedule. Vendor input during preliminary design will include delivery lead times that are used to develop a preliminary construction schedule. As vendor proposals are received, the more accurate information is used to update the schedule. When vendor selections are complete, the schedule is optimized to meet construction needs. During this process, the project team will need to address the following materials management issues: • Vendor equipment fabrication schedules, which are submitted shortly after the award, will re?ne the schedule and make construction easier. • Using manufacturer’s standard models will result in delivery dates that are much more reliable than those for custom-engineered equipment. • Timing the delivery of the equipment so that it can be unloaded directly onto its foundation will avoid warehousing and multiple handling. • Subcontractors should be scheduled to ensure smooth ?ow between boundaries of the subcontracts. • Showing subcontract milestones on the schedule will facilitate management and change control. • Scheduling deliveries of materials will minimize warehousing as much as possible. Some warehousing will be required for long lead items and items requiring assembly prior to installation. Developing tight scopes of work for subcontracts. While subcontracts allow the project to spread the risk of construction, this could be negated by poor management of subcontracts. The key to effective subcontract management is to de?ne the scope in clear, speci?c terms in order to avoid changes that could have an adverse effect on the schedule and cost. With the boundaries de?ned on the drawings, congested areas can be color coded to show responsibility between subcontractors. The scope should be described in a narrative that states how boundary interfaces are handled and who is responsible. It should include objective milestones, the schedule for achieving those milestones and any penalties for not achieving them. If the subcontractor is responsible for any design, the scope should de?ne the outcome of the design and not how the design is to be performed. Again, the submittals required from the subcontractor should be kept to a minimum.
Vendor control
Avoiding changes during vendor drawing review. During this stage of the project, it is very easy for unintentional vendor scope changes to occur through comments on the vendor drawings. Simple comments can result in signi?cant changes to the equipment and subcontractor scope. It is essential for the reviewer of vendor data to keep comments to a minimum, especially when the use of performance speci?cations makes the supplier responsible for the design. As long as the equipment meets the performance criteria and space boundaries, no comments should be necessary. The materials management objective during this stage of the project is to minimize the time spent on vendor drawing review and to ensure that all required submittals are received from the vendors in a timely manner. Expediting vendors. The materials management focus for expediting is twofold. First, critical data from vendors have to be expedited and received as early as possible after order issue to avoid delaying the design. Second, fabrication and deliveries need to be expedited to meet the construction schedule. The amount of shop expediting is likely to be less owing to the use of standard equipment models with established manufacturing practices. For complex equipment, construction personnel should visit the manufacturing facility to become familiar with the details of ?eld assembly and installation. Contacting the vendors and obtaining the status of progress at frequent intervals are esJOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT IN ENGINEERING / JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1999 / 33
FEATURE
sential to ensuring that commitments will be met. Setting up a transportation agreement with one carrier to ship all equipment and material will reduce costs and allow greater shipment control. With a single party responsible for transportation, it will be easier to make temporary arrangements to hold equipment for short periods of time until the applicable foundation or support is ready. This will avoid the costs of handling the same equipment more than once.
Construction
ulating how much material is issued for construction will also minimize waste. Obtaining vendor assistance during installation and start-up. Unclear instructions from the vendor often delay installation and start-up. It is usually cost effective for vendors’ technical representatives to provide guidance to the construction personnel.
Closeout
Managing subcontractors to avoid changes. Subcontracts enable the engineering company to share construction risk and the use of special expertise for such factors as ?re protection, security and insulation. Specialty subcontractors can reduce work costs compared with performing the work with the company’s own forces. Change avoidance is best achieved by maintaining good communications with the subcontractors. Periodic meetings with key subcontractors to identify potential problems and develop mutually bene?cial solutions are the best way to minimize changes. The relationship with ?rm price subcontractors will be adversarial because the only way for them to maximize their returns is through change orders. Using detailed schedules that have objective, measurable milestones that determine payment is the best way to account for the subcontractor’s progress and for minimizing claims. Receiving and warehousing. The objective during this stage of the project is to properly account for the equipment and material delivered to the site and locate it within the warehouse so that it is readily available when needed by construction. This will avoid duplicate orders for materials already on hand. Reg-
Disposition of surplus material. Using standard materials will make it easier to dispose of surplus materials because vendors will be more likely to reduce restocking charges if they have a better chance of resale. Alternatively, the engineering company can also sell the surplus because there should be a greater market for standard items. Feedback and lessons learned. An effective system must have a feedback loop to analyze what lessons were learned from the project. An objective review of the materials management process should be performed at the end of an EPC project to identify potential areas for improvement and take credit for the accomplishments. Focusing on materials management for engineer/procure/construct projects will provide signi?cant bene?ts to the engineering company and its customer in several ways. The customer will get exactly what he or she speci?ed, leading to satis?ed customers and repeat business. The engineering company will pro?t through a clear focus on the items that drive the costs, equipment and materials. The company’s workforce will be more motivated as part of a project that has a well-de?ned organization and mission. Finally, improved relationships with major suppliers will lead to better pricing. Effective implementation of the materials management process is the key to successful project management.
34 / JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT IN ENGINEERING / JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1999
doc_550520625.pdf