Project Management
2.3 Project Life Cycle
2.3.3 Feed (Preliminary) Engineering
This stage is the second phase after the completion of the feasibility study for a project. This phase of preliminary engineering studies, which is known as feed engineering, is not less important than the first phase.
This phase of engineering is one of the most important and most dangerous stages of engineering and professionalism of the project since the success of the project as a whole depends on the engineer- ing study in this phase. Therefore, as this stage is vital, the engineer- ing consultancy firm that performs this study should have strong experience in these types of projects.
For example, a Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) project is a type of project that needs an experienced office. Another example would be offshore projects that use Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) and that also need a special consulting office that has worked on this type of project before.
In the case of small projects such as residential or administra- tive building or a small factory, the phase of feed engineering is to deliver the type of structure, whether it would be a steel or concrete structure. If a concrete structure is decided, the engineer should define it as a pre-cast concrete, pre-stress concrete, or normal con- crete and then determine the type of slab structure system if it will be solid slab, flat slab, hollow blocks, or others. Also, this phase defines the location of the columns and the structure system and if it will use a frame or shear wall for a high-rise building.
In summary, the preliminary engineering is to provide a compar-
ison between these alternatives and the variation depending on the
size of the building itself and the requirements of the owner. The reasonable structure system and similar mechanical or electrical system will be selected, so this stage is called a select phase.
In the case of major projects such as a petrochemical plant or new platforms, there will be other studies in this stage such as geotechni- cal studies, met ocean studies, seismic studies, and environmental studies.
The main element of this study is to provide the layout depend- ing on the road design, location of the building, and hazard area classification in the petroleum projects.
Moreover, it needs to select the foundation type, if it is a shal- low foundation or driven or rotary piles based on the geotechnical studies.
In the case of oil and gas projects, we need to study carefully the mode of transfers and trade-offs of the product and select the appro- priate methods of transferring between the available alternatives options.
Now it is clear that, as a result of the seriousness of that stage and the need for extensive experience, in the case of large projects the owner should have competent engineers and administrative organization that have the ability to follow up on initial studies in order to achieve the goal of the project and coordination between the various project disciplines, such as civil, mechanical, electrical, and chemical, as all the disciplines usually intersect at this stage.
Generally, regardless of the size of the project the owner must prepare the Statement Of Requirement (SOR) document during the preparation of engineering requirements. The SOR will be a com- plete document containing all the owner information and needs concerning the project and the objective of the project.
This document is a start-up phase of the mission documents quality assurance system, as this document must contain all that is requested by the owner. The SOR document must outline the whole project and have a document containing all particulars of the proj- ect and its objectives and proposals and the required specifications of the owner.
This document also contains the technical information available from the owner, such as the location of the land and its coordinates system and its specifications. Noting that, this document will be a part of the contract document between the owner and the engi- neering firm, noting that the engineering firm will provide the Cost Time and Resources (CTR) sheets based on this document.
Table 2.1 Title:- What
Why
How When
Who
Statement of Requirements (SOR) Preparation
The SOR is a formal document. It can vary from being a one-page document (minor projects) to a sizeable document incorporating the "basis of design," i.e., plant, pipe sizes, pressures, etc.
The SOR is intended to document, in a clear and unambiguous manner, the key engineering inputs and the major engineering requirements and management tasks that have to be
completed in order to meet a particular business objective, this objective being clearly defined at the beginning of the SOR.
The completed SOR is intended to identify the factors that the business sponsoring the project considers important to the ultimate success of the project, as well as being a high level specification of project deliverables.
Create a formal document, depending on the project needs.
Within the project framework, the SOR will form an integral part of the select stage DSP, and it is required for the chosen option at the end of Selection, and the project should not continue into Define until the SOR has been approved.
In practice, the SOR is usually prepared by the project personnel who liase closely with the business unit personnel (SPA). It is important that the BU formally approves the SOR as it is effectively a contract between the BU and the project team defining high-level deliverables and expectations.
Similarly, because of the significance, a change management procedure should be established that will ensure all the changes receive the necessary approval.
In the case of projects such as gas, an LNG gas liquefaction project is to determine the amount of gas, type, and specifications, which need to process and transfer with the clarification of tem- perature, pressure, and all other technical data for the final product to be shipped or transported outside. This is one of the most impor- tant data to be mentioned in the document, which is to identify the project lifetime. Specifications required by the owner in the project should be defined clearly and precisely in this document.
It should be noted that we must hold many of the regular meet- ings between the owner, technical team, and the consulting engi- neering responsible for the preparation of initial studies. Through that the SOR may be amended several times, and each time the
document must contain the date and revision number as to contain all of the requirements of civil, architectural, electrical, mechanical and others found in the project.
We may recall here that in quality assurance we must be sure that the final document resides with all the parties and that everyone is working through this document, and it must be done to determine the number of meetings and the exact schedule of meetings needed to reach the target required.
The SOR document is not only required for the new project, but it is also needed in the case of modification to the buildings or in the plant. In the case of small buildings, the owner should define the required number of apartments, floors, and stories or any other requirements the owner feels is a benefit to his target.
Upon receipt of the engineering office, the SOR document is to respond to the owner document with another document that is called the Basis of Design (BOD). Through the document the engi- neering firm will clarify the code and engineering specifications, which will operate in the design as well as the calculation methods, theory, and computer software that will be used.
This document may state the required number of copies of the drawings that will be sent to the owner and the sizes of those drawings.
In addition, the engineering firm should request any missing data and require a third party to supplement information such as weather and environmental factors. This document will be review by the owner carefully and can be amended many times until satisfies the two parties.
At this stage, it is important to make sure that both the owner and the engineering firm have the same concept and there is a complete agreement among all the technical aspects. In the preparation of any drawings, we are now in the FEED studies, in which the draw- ings should be delivered to the owner to review and give input.
The owner and the engineering firm should agree on the number of reviews of the document, and if it goes over the specified time it means that the owner has accepted it. This is very important in controlling the project's timeline.
This phase may take a number of months in the case of large projects, and therefore the technical office of the owner must have a qualified engineer with experience in controlling costs and fol- low-up time according to the schedule agreed upon in advance.
We may need to consult a specialized engineer in planning who is the Planner Engineer. The engineer should be specialized in cost
control, the estimated cost of the project, and the expected time, which is comparable in the feasibility study.
After clearly selecting the equipment and the project layout in its final stage, the project cost estimate will be more precise, and, as the end of the initial study approaches then one can obtain the nearest possible accuracy of the cost of the project as a whole. It is worth mentioning that investment projects, such as petroleum projects, that have any savings in time, bring a big return where the return of income or expense is calculated by the day.
It is imperative that we note here that at this stage one should not overlook the way in which to determine the maintenance of the buildings and the facilities foundation in oil and gas plants in the future, which can be done by establishing the age of the structure and denning the structure lifetime, type of structure, and the ways of maintenance. The project site itself and the surrounding environ- ment must be considered to determine the ways to protect it from weather, reducing the cost of maintenance over time by selecting different methods of maintenance.
For example, you can protect a reinforced concrete foundation from corrosion by protecting the reinforcing steel, for example, through a system of expensive protection at the beginning of the construction with a periodic low-cost maintenance. On the other hand, we can use a low-cost alternative during construction and high-cost regular maintenance as a simple example if we don't use any external protection system.
The structure, the mode of operation, and the maintenance plan all have an impact on the preliminary design. For example, in power stations we must ask whether the water tank can be repaired, main- tained, or cleaned. To answer this question, you must decide if it needs additional tanks as standby for maintenance purposes or not.
In this phase many other initial design decisions must be made, and therefore this stage, as previously mentioned, requires high experience, since any error would lead major problems during operation, which could cost a lot of money and could be prevented by a low-cost solution in this phase.