PROJECT MANAGEMENT AS AN ART
The IPSD (Industrial Plant Systems Designer) must be well versed in the art of Project Management. Project Management is defined as "directing nature, quantity and timing of temporarily assembled resources, skills and knowledge to reach specified technical & financial objectives within quality, safety, social & environmental constraints”.
In project management, contractors are the players in the other side of the equation. Regardless of the classification of the contractor, a good project management is the key to the accomplishment of the project at the right quality, most effective cost and on target schedules. Of course, the bottom line of a good project management maybe the realization of the hard-earned profit on the part of the contractor while a nice, safe, operational, built-to-standard edifice, plant or facility that the client envisioned is delivered at the target schedule.
However, the lowest bid is not enough. Clients and their engineers must be quick to identify tell-tale signs if the contractors hired are good ones or not. And ‘standards’ must be in the center stage.
The following are some tips indicating a good & reliable designer or contractor.
1) A good technical design prepared to the highest standards and value creation by the client engineer or its designated designer or project managers. This forms part of the Scope of Work that will make the work commonly clear & understood by constructors.
2) A reliable & realistic cost estimate that leads to a contract price commensurate to the money invested, the efforts and risk involved in undertaking the project,
3) A good team of qualified & experienced technical men assigned in the field.
To orchestrate a project by the client engineer requires depth of understanding of the project. The client must present a clear Scope of Work & Work Specifications, in other words, a clear picture of what the client wants. Scopes of Work must be accompanied with technical plans, layout, diagrams & material specifications to be presented during a pre-bidding conference attended by the contractors all convened at the same time. Remember that contractors will base their bids on a common ground. This common denominator will spell fair play amongst bidders. Lapses must be proactively identified (most common cause of project delays) and should there be changes in plans before the final bidding conference must be covered by bid bulletins with all the players copied.
With a confident house estimate, it would be easy for the client engineer to spot or detect which contractor is gambling on the tightrope. In reality, it's very easy to eliminate the highest bids but it's difficult to ignore the lowest bid. His finance managers and auditors, (usually members of the bidding committee), will haunt him. The client engineer might even be suspected of doing monkey business. The finance guys are looking after the lowest numbers while the technical side is for the engineer to worry.
Experience shows that life would be miserable in a project, if it is started with an incorrect budget. However, most electrical budgets are always born without electrical parents. It just comes out as if, by magic. In the end, quality & standards suffer.
DAA
The IPSD (Industrial Plant Systems Designer) must be well versed in the art of Project Management. Project Management is defined as "directing nature, quantity and timing of temporarily assembled resources, skills and knowledge to reach specified technical & financial objectives within quality, safety, social & environmental constraints”.
In project management, contractors are the players in the other side of the equation. Regardless of the classification of the contractor, a good project management is the key to the accomplishment of the project at the right quality, most effective cost and on target schedules. Of course, the bottom line of a good project management maybe the realization of the hard-earned profit on the part of the contractor while a nice, safe, operational, built-to-standard edifice, plant or facility that the client envisioned is delivered at the target schedule.
However, the lowest bid is not enough. Clients and their engineers must be quick to identify tell-tale signs if the contractors hired are good ones or not. And ‘standards’ must be in the center stage.
The following are some tips indicating a good & reliable designer or contractor.
1) A good technical design prepared to the highest standards and value creation by the client engineer or its designated designer or project managers. This forms part of the Scope of Work that will make the work commonly clear & understood by constructors.
2) A reliable & realistic cost estimate that leads to a contract price commensurate to the money invested, the efforts and risk involved in undertaking the project,
3) A good team of qualified & experienced technical men assigned in the field.
To orchestrate a project by the client engineer requires depth of understanding of the project. The client must present a clear Scope of Work & Work Specifications, in other words, a clear picture of what the client wants. Scopes of Work must be accompanied with technical plans, layout, diagrams & material specifications to be presented during a pre-bidding conference attended by the contractors all convened at the same time. Remember that contractors will base their bids on a common ground. This common denominator will spell fair play amongst bidders. Lapses must be proactively identified (most common cause of project delays) and should there be changes in plans before the final bidding conference must be covered by bid bulletins with all the players copied.
With a confident house estimate, it would be easy for the client engineer to spot or detect which contractor is gambling on the tightrope. In reality, it's very easy to eliminate the highest bids but it's difficult to ignore the lowest bid. His finance managers and auditors, (usually members of the bidding committee), will haunt him. The client engineer might even be suspected of doing monkey business. The finance guys are looking after the lowest numbers while the technical side is for the engineer to worry.
Experience shows that life would be miserable in a project, if it is started with an incorrect budget. However, most electrical budgets are always born without electrical parents. It just comes out as if, by magic. In the end, quality & standards suffer.
DAA
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