Hydrocarbon Processing - February 2022 - 47

Plant Design, Engineering, Construction and Commissioning
viders. For larger units (e.g., capacities of more than 4 MMtpy),
the cooling structures on each project are designed. Here, it pays
to create a new integrated engineering taskset with integrated
IT support to cover structure, civil, piping and controls tasks.
By doing so, the efficiency of engineering the unit is improved
and CNC programs for fabrication replace ISOs. Total capital
expenditure savings in such units may be 15%-20%.
Example 3: Innovation for CO2
recovery units or for
alternative low-CO2 feedstock. Investments in refineries to
reduce their CO2
footprint require innovative engineering. Option
1 is to capture CO2 when processing hydrocarbon (i.e., carbon
capture and storage). Cost-effective solutions are needed,
pursued by confined iteration to improve the quality of a solution.
For these functions, one pursues a lower division of labor
among highly qualified engineers, supported by integrated IT.
This may be expensive, but it will lower the iteration cost. The
division can include juniors to iterate. On quality, effective IT
to iterate is needed. This innovation and quality drive still fits
divided tasksets. Savings in the innovative scope are 20%-30%.
Option 2 is to work on new forms of feed. This requires more
innovation. It may even require a low division of tasksets and integrated
IT to ensure results. These steps are safeguards to produce
tangible results. Avoiding a failure to innovate adds to savings.
Takeaway. These examples show that-in a greater drive for
improvement-substantial results can be achieved within engineering.
Division of labor is still instrumental for productivity,
although it now needs a different approach in which iteration is
treated as a separate feature, while IT is instrumental for productivity
gains. This assists to tune design organizations to improve
their competitive standing. Two examples illustrate cost savings
through fusing tasksets and one through integration of design
and fabrication data.
Therefore, there are various productivity-enhancing solutions
that push the design organization to more productivity.
These can lead to healthy profit margins, based on a project
level guidance toward innovation and quality performance and
the ability to perform projects that require low design costs or
short lead times. It is a challenge for engineering, procurement
and construction (EPC) companies to increase their current
1%-3% margins to 6%-7%. The combined steps listed in this
article certainly elevate margins on projects.
LITERATURE CITED
1 Fayol, H., General and Industrial Management, Ravenio Books, Paris, France, 1970.
2
MAURITS J. VAN WAGENBERG is President of IBASC, an engineering
management and research firm, and has extensive experience in tracking
the health of engineering organizations and of the engineering execution on
complex plants. Dr. Van Wagenberg has worked for more than 30 years in
the field of improving engineering performance and on project risk analysis.
He has performed comparative analysis among organizations and developed
ways to fine-tune engineering execution toward specific project needs. Dr. Van
Wagenberg has written papers on design performance, owner/EPC relationships,
developments in industrial areas, and energy transformation. He completed his
PhD in industrial organization from Radboud University in the Netherlands.
Taylor, F. W., The Principles of Scientific Management, Harper and Brothers
Publishers, New York and London, 1915.
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