Abstract

In EPC (Engineering, Procurement and Construction) projects, the engineering/design phase is crucial as it has a direct impact on the delivery of such complex projects. Efficient tracking of engineering deliverables is a key to the successful delivery of these projects. Many studies have been carried out in this domain to develop tracking and control systems, particularly for A/E firms. The engineering deliverables in the Engineering/Design phase in EPC projects should be controlled individually and should be integrated with the project schedule. The aim of this research is to study current practice in the management area referred above and present a methodology that enhances tracking and controlling of engineering deliverables; integrating the cost and schedule functions; forecasting the cost and time at the report date and at completion; and for integrating the engineering deliverables with the project schedule to demonstrate their effects on the delivery of such projects. To demonstrate the use and essential features of the proposed methodology, a computerized system has been developed in the Microsoft ® Windows XP environment using Excel sheet 2003. The developed system operates at three levels in EPC projects: (1) the deliverables level; (2) the activities level; and at (3) the project level. It is a stand alone system that can be used as an independent add-on utility to the project management software of the industrial partner "PM+". The developed system can be used to assist the project management teams on making decisions to improve the delivery of the EPC projects considering the impact of engineering deliverables. A training set of data developed by an industrial partner, SNC-LAVALIN, from of their EPCM projects, is utilized to validate the accuracy and functionality of the developed system