I found most capital projects had two types of fire protection which Designers had to address
One straight forward, one not so straight forward
Fire protection design is not straight forward
Category: Engineering Procurement Construction
Engineering is the work involved in designing equipment and structures
Procurement is the acquisition of the services, materials and site works to successfully complete a project from start to finish
Construction is the site work of installing a plant, structure or building
Equipment Purchasing ideal scenario
Finding vendor standard equipment which meets the required duty and is safe for use is usually the ideal scenario for equipment purchasing (both technically and commercially)
Piping design always takes longer than planned
During my career piping design developed from hand draughting to 2D computer aided design to 3D computer modelling but always seemed to take longer than planned
Subcontractors should receive more recognition
Vendors and Construction contractors (usually subcontractors managed by the EPCM contractor) that build and then deliver the asset are key to capital projects
It is vital that Clients create relationships with these subcontractors to ensure the build quality and ensure willingness to provide assistance with emerging issues during commissioning and operation
Site Managers have the most difficult job in capital projects
I think Site Managers have the most difficult job on capital projects
The people who do this have to multi-task constantly many issues eg labour relations, programming, safe systems of work, the weather and implementation of the CDM construction phase plan
The success of reporting construction near misses
I regard the health and safety reporting of construction near misses by supervisors and the workforce to be the most significant cultural change in making sites safer
Process Engineers have a huge responsibility
I have the greatest respect for Process Engineers.
For process plants, they are at the top of the design pyramid with a huge responsibility to get things right first time.
Good ones present process designs which pass the scrutiny of detail design development and commissioning
Process design however covers a huge field (to me anything with flow, temperature and pressure). Sometimes it was sensible to bring in specialists from vendors to work with them in peripheral areas of their technology such as HVAC
Project procurement skills are often overlooked
Procurement skills are often overlooked in project management and project engineering training and job recognition
Contractor compounds are increasing in size
Over the years the size of contractor compounds (welfare and office facilities) seems to have grown exponentially
This has greatly improved the health and safety of workers which I fully support and probably helps Site Managers
However sometimes they seem excessive, under utilised and difficult to find space for