Design standards provided by Clients

A Client’s commercial manager once mentioned that he thought that a new process plant would be delivered by just placing a contract and then receiving the keys at the end (like buying a BMW car?)

He did not seem to have an appreciation of the end-user input and effort needed to build capital assets

One of the reasons is that no design contractor is likely to have sufficient engineering knowledge specific to the technology of the new asset

Gone are the times when design contractors had their own design specifications (except possibly for civil and structural). Also in the 1990s many contractors tended to prioritise commercial factors such as man-hours and programmes over the quality of design (leaving it up to the skills of the individuals hired)

Therefore if the design requirements are not stipulated by statutory or national standards (eg British Standards) then it essentially is up to end-users (with the help of the project team) to fill in any gaps and provide information to ensure a quality design and build

Also if end-users have engineering standards, they are more geared towards the maintenance and inspection than initial build quality (important to take into account but not all encompassing)

I found that there was two types of Client design standards required for capital plant:

• Mandatory standards. Usually covering specialised items core to the Business and safety related such as fluid properties and associated piping specifications
• Preferred standards. Usually items needed in addition to national standards which the end-user has learned over the years eg electrical, instrumentation and fire protection preferences. These need discussing with designers and appropriate decisions made

Even non-production assets like offices and warehouses will have Client design preferences which need identifying at the beginning of projects