Turning to the basics of the format of presentation, in an endeavour

to provide a text that can be useful for on-the-job reference, the general
mechanism employed is the checklist. Wherever possible, the text has
been formatted into bullets, which are intended to provide a structured
approach to the common practical situations, by helping the engineer
both to plan his2 approach and to check that he is addressing all essential
facets.
1.4 Getting it right
The basic project methodology advocated in this book is to start a
project by looking as widely as possible at the choices presented, evaluate
the full consequences of those choices, and then develop a strategy to
make the best of the opportunities and eliminate the risks. The strategy
is further developed in a structured fashion, leading to detailed plans
and methodologies, which are based on solid experience that has been
proven to give manageably acceptable results.
It all sounds very simple. And yet, so many individual engineers, and
organizations of engineers, fail to produce acceptable results. Individual
intelligent and well-educated engineers fail to rise above mediocrity, and
whole engineering organizations become obsolete and disappear. Others
prosper: some seemingly by sheer luck, by being in the right place at the
right time, but mostly by getting the right balance between having a
good strategy, based on recognition of personal objectives, and the
diligent deployment of sound skills.
There really is not much more to be said about the path to success,
but it is quite easy to comment on the failures. A few main categories
are worth mentioning.
� Bad luck. As real calamities such as political risk or natural disaster
can and should be insured against, this should rather be described as
the occasional, unfortunate consequence of excessive risk. Some
degree of technical risk is inevitable for developing technologies,
without which a technically based enterprise is anyway unlikely to
flourish. The same goes for commercial risk, which is necessary to
seize opportunities. The key is to have a considered risk management
2 Throughout the text, the male gender is intended to include the female. This is
done
purely for the purposes of simplification.8 Handbook for Process Plant Project
Engineers
plan, which recognizes and excludes risks whose possible consequences are
unacceptable, and balances manageable risk against
reward. This should lead to ample compensation in the long run. In
conclusion, this is an element of strategy.
� Lack of knowledge (job-information, know-how or commercial
practice) or of diligence. The following text should hopefully impart
enough knowledge at least to assess how much additional expertise
and information is required for a given project. No remedy is available for the
second shortcoming.
� Setting of unreasonable targets. The detail of how this sometimes
comes about, and how it can be recognized, will be addressed in the
text � it is really a relationship issue. Occasionally, social or political
factors, or �brain-dead� enterprise directors, spawn projects which
inherently have little or no real economic return � a conclusion which
is hidden by an unreasonable target. Stay clear of these projects!
� Running in reactive mode. Here is an example. A natural resources
company needs a new process unit to enhance its product slate. Its
technical manager (the client) is appointed to oversee the project. He
is a leading expert on the technology application, and Knows What
He Wants, but is not terribly good at communicating it � or listening
for that matter. In due course a project team is assembled under a
project manager, including a process design team and a lead engineer
Fig. 1.1 �... a good strategy, based on the recognition of personal
objectives, and the diligent deployment of sound skills�Introduction 9
for each discipline. A planner is recruited. He loses no time in getting
plans from each discipline, and putting them together into an overall
network. Unfortunately, he does not fully understand the interaction
between disciplines of detailed engineering information, the potential
conflicts, or how they may be resolved. The client dictates that the
project schedule must be 16 months to commissioning, because he
heard that was achieved somewhere else, and the planner duly jockeys
the project schedule around to reflect this. The client also dictates the
project budget. This includes no contingency, because he Knows
What He Wants, and contingencies will only encourage the project
team to believe that error and waste are acceptable.
As time goes on:
� Engineering gets further and further behind schedule, as each
discipline in turn is unable to start or complete jobs because of
the unavailability of information from equipment vendors and
other disciplines.
� Design and procurement decisions are endlessly delayed,
because the client is not offered what he Wants, and expects the
project team simply to make up the delays. They do not.
� Many of the project drawings become full of revisions, holds,
and � inevitably � interface errors, because the wrong revisions
of input information were used, or assumptions were made but
not verified and corrected.
� In the struggle to catch up, quality functions, such as layout
design reviews and equipment and fabrication inspections, are
skimped.
� The project manager loses control of the project � in fact, he
spends most of his time arguing with the client, usually to try to
stop process and layout changes being made. (�These aren�t
changes�, the client would say. �They are corrections of error.
You failed to design what I Wanted.�)
� The construction site degenerates into chaos. The construction
management are unable to handle all the late drawings, design
errors, late deliveries, flawed materials, and acceleration demands.
� Both schedule and budget are grossly overrun, and the
construction contractors make a fortune out of claims, especially
for extended site establishment. And the plant is not What The
Client Wanted.
If none of this seems familiar � you are new to process plant work. But
it is all quite unnecessary.