Detail Engineering Trilogy – Part 3: Completion and Transition

After the previous stages of detail engineering (see previous article), the last part will mainly focus on the completion process to wrap up the deliverable and the transition with the fabrication/installation stage. This final stage normally occurred 1-2 months after the 60% 3D model review up to the completion of detail engineering. During this stage all vendor engineering, third party study result and constructability review result are available to be integrated with the main detail engineering design.

Most of the deliverable issued on this period will related to design update based on vendor information/engineering, final recommendation from safety study, technical feedback from constructability review and massive detail document issuance such as isometric or trouble shooting loop diagram. Main points to be manage during this stage can be summarized on the explanation below,

·       Fabrication related documents. On this period the fabrication is normally started for all disciplines and ready for full swing. The various disciplines activities should be synchronized between availability of detail engineering documents, material arrival and fabrication/construction resources. Issuance schedule alignment is critical to ensure construction work front availability and undisturbed fabrication sequence. High level detail engineering document correlation is presented on the figures below.

·       Vendor documentation integration. It’s quite common that the update of the vendor engineering are overlook due to high pressure to wrap up the detail engineering activities. The impact of the inconsistencies can be varying subject to criticality of the equipment or material. Vendor HAZOP close-out and vendor main design interface subject shall be well integrated with the detail engineering design. For non-critical material/equipment it might only require document update during final documentation. However, for critical equipment like for compressor, power generation or other complex process packages, it can generate significant problem during construction, commissioning, and start-up.

·       3D Model finalization and punch list follow up. 90% 3D model review are the final gate during detail engineering process. Overall punch list closure is become essential to secure the mature and reliable input for the next stage. Massive documentation (such as Isometric dwg, support detail, structure dwg,etc) will be automatically generated from the 3D model as an input for the construction engineering. For that reason, securing the correctness and completion of the 3D model become key activities during this stage.

·       Detail Engineering Transition. By the end of the detail engineering normally there are transfer of work from the Engineering sub-contractor to the EPSCC (except if the EPSCC are having capability to perform their own detail engineering process). This process also important at the final stage of detail engineering, since we need to ensure there are no gap in between and all information are well transferred. Implementation digitalization software such as AVEVA Engineering ease the process since everything are traceable within the system and not depend on the human resources.

As final word author would like to underline that managing the detail engineering is not fully focus on technical aspect like what we normally did during FEED or conceptual study. Since the detail engineering is normally integrated within the EPSCC contract, Engineering management leadership should have overall view of the project big picture and implication of engineering deliverable (schedule and cost). In most of the case, compromised situation and pragmatic technical judgement are required to secure the achievement of project objective on top of the successful detail engineering activities