Managing schedule, cost, and quality

There are many software packages and manual systems available to give accurate feedback on schedule performance, provided that adequate planning has been done and accurate reporting on task completion is available. But this feedback, although necessary, is historical; the art of engineering schedule management depends on anticipating the ‘glitches’.

Given that engineering at this stage of the project is fundamentally a job of information processing, the greatest care must be exercised in looking ahead to the next few weeks’ information outputs, and understanding what inputs will be needed, especially between disciplines and across external interfaces such as procurement.

As is the case of schedule management, there are any number of software packages and systems to provide management reporting for cost control, and since this is regarded as a discipline in itself the subject will not be pursued in depth. The essence of any system is the break-down of the project expenditure into a sufficient and appropriate number of components, which are tailored to enable the manager to get information on cost trends in time to take corrective action.

Engineering plays the major part in determining the cost of the project, firstly by determining the design and specification, secondly by deciding on the technical acceptability of purchased goods and services, and thirdly by re-engineering and technical compromise when cost trends are unacceptable. In this process, it is seldom possible for any cost reporting system to give timely management cost information, if the system is wholly dependent on actual prices and costs from suppliers and contractors. By the time such information is available, the effect on schedule and other consequences of modifying the design is likely to be severe or unacceptable. Therefore good cost management in engineering requires an awareness of the cost consequences of every design feature, at the time that each item is designed. As part of this process, all designs should be promptly checked for conformance to the conceptual designs and quantities on which the project budget was based.

There is another aspect of engineering cost management, which is the cost of the engineering itself. The control system is the same as for

purchased items, namely, the engineering activities are monitored against an itemized budget (usually of manhours). However, as engineering decisions and designs impact the direct field costs, there may be opportunities to reduce the overall project cost by increased expenditure on engineering, or, conversely, to save on engineering by spending a little extra money on equipment suppliers or construction contractors that then need less engineering input.

Last but not least of the management fundamentals is engineering quality management.

In the following chapters on the project environment, we will see that there is no absolute dictate on the quantity of engineering work that goes into a plant. For instance, the quality of work can always be improved by carrying out more checks and re-work, but this is not necessarily justified when any errors can be readily fixed up in the workshop or on site. There are some activities which are usually excluded from any quality compromise, including those related to the plant’s structural integrity and safety of operation. So before planning the quality management work, the underlying quality policy issues need to be clearly exposed and agreed, for which purpose the consequences of possible engineering shortcomings need to be evaluated. Actions necessary to ensure the correct engineering of critical items may then be

Fig. 4.3 ‘Engineering plays the major role in determining the cost of the project ...’

planned. For non-critical items, economically based quality assurance procedures may be drawn up, and a reasonable contingency may be included for remedial action in the field or workshop.

The detailed planning of engineering quality management is a matter of procedures: deciding what checks, reviews, and audits will be made, how they will be made, and when they will be made. The quality system may have to comply with the requirements of standards such as the ISO9000 series, or the plant owner’s stipulations. A few general principles to bear in mind are the following.

• The quality of engineering work is generally assured by the acceptance of responsibility by individuals, who sign their names to a document. Process plant engineering is a team effort, therefore the signatures may not reflect total responsibility for the work represented on the document; rather each signature reflects that certain activities impacting the document have been performed correctly. The quality management process is undermined unless it is clear what those activities are and how they must be performed. Procedures, job descriptions, and checklists have to make it clear. Ideally, when a document is signed as checked or reviewed, the checker/reviewer should add the reference number of the checklist or procedure that he has followed. As a general rule, quality assurance depends on the correct definition and understanding of responsibility.

• An audit trail for design information, detailing the source document and its revision status/date, is an indispensable quality tool. This can also be effective when used in reverse in controlling design changes, when the omission to revise all consequential changes is a frequent problem.

• Because of revisions – engineering is an iterative process – a signature always needs a corresponding date.

It may be noted that all of the comments on engineering quality relate to ensuring that the planned objectives are met – none relate to ‘engi-neering excellence’. This should not be taken to imply that engi‘engi-neering is just a matter of doing what has been planned – excellent engineers have plenty of scope for ‘making the difference’ in the conceptual stage, for developing the most effective design details and, all too frequently, for producing solutions to unanticipated problems. The subject pres-ently discussed is quality management rather than quality itself, and it needs to be stressed that even with a team of brilliant engineers (especially in this case, possibly), quality lies not just in individual brilliance, but probably more in meticulous attention to detail.