Of the ten projects on the Russian industrial market today, only two are new construction, and the rest are associated with the reconstruction or modernization of existing production facilities.
To perform any design work, the customer chooses a contractor among companies, which are rather difficult to compare linearly due to too subtle, but significant differences in the structure and organization of internal processes. The two main competing forces in the Russian design market are the usual design organizations and engineering companies that perform design as independent work or as part of complex projects that also include construction, installation and commissioning. Let's take a look at how both types of companies work.
Main market participants
New construction of industrial facilities is always a huge investment and a long payback period. Therefore, any owner is always interested in the fact that the life of his facility is as long as possible.
However, during this time, the physical deterioration of structures, changes to existing standards are inevitable and, most likely, the need to increase production capacity and expand the technological capabilities of the enterprise.
Reconstruction, technical re-equipment and modernization allow extending the “life” of production and ensuring its compliance with modern ideas about efficiency. The design of such projects is now especially in demand. The reasons are that they require significantly less investment than new construction, and there are many industrial facilities in our country that are more than 20-30 years old (many of them were built back in the Soviet period).
Due to the decrease in the number of large-scale projects, the composition of the participants in the project services market has changed.
It is not economically feasible for design institutes to engage in projects with small volumes and, as a result, with low cost of work. Therefore, the number of project "giants" has fallen: the rest are mostly departmental institutions of large companies (AK Transneft, Rosneft, Gazpromneft, RusHydro, etc.). The number of small and medium-sized design organizations with a staff of designers from 5 to 30 specialists has increased.
Engineering companies are relatively new market participants. As a rule, they do:
- feasibility study of the project;
- planning financial flows, providing financing;
- full management of the project or its parts;
- design, modeling, design;
- work with suppliers and contractors;
- provision of commissioning works;
- provision of transportation;
- audit, licensing, etc.
It would seem that the choice between a "company-orchestra" and an organization with a narrow specialization is obvious. However, not all so simple.
Evaluate the task - choose the contractor
The tasks solved during reconstruction and technical re-equipment, as a rule, do not require a large team of designers, but are extremely demanding on the contractor, whose level of competence should be “above average”.
Each specialist of the team in such a project must know the methodology and have significant design experience, understand installation and construction technologies, have a broad outlook on equipment: know the manufacturers on the market and understand the features of their equipment in terms of operational and functional suitability for a particular facility, durability, maintainability and, most importantly, cost.
If the decisions made to achieve technical performance and safety require the attraction of funds that exceed the budgetary expectations or restrictions of the customer, then most likely the project will not be implemented. Thus, it is highly likely that the design work paid for by the customer will go to the trash, and the task will not be solved.
This is where the so-called “turnkey projects” come to the rescue, when one contractor performs all the work, from a feasibility study to the commissioning of the entire facility. At the same time, the marginal cost of work is negotiated before the design and working documentation is completed, since for technical re-equipment and reconstruction facilities, with the proper approach, it is possible to calculate the costs of construction and operation without developing working documentation.
The classical methodology for designing / implementing an object, when there are several contractors - for design, equipment supply, installation, in a rapidly changing market for equipment, materials and construction methods, does not allow an accurate assessment of construction costs without the development of working documentation.
When it comes to re-equipment and modernization projects, the classical design method is malfunctioning: projects are carried out “conceptually” without the proper level of detail, which leads to increased CAPEX costs and construction time.
EPC projects require a compact design team that, in addition to basic design skills, is able to conduct surveys of existing engineering systems, work closely with customer services at the stage of data collection, approval of working documentation, supervision of implementation), as well as with suppliers of the main and auxiliary equipment, logistics departments, production and technical departments of assembly departments.
My colleagues and I from the company» tried to compare the approaches of design organizations and engineering companies. The results are in the table below.
| Project organization | Engineering company |
|---|---|
| Formation of the cost of development of design and working documentation | |
| — Basis-index method using collections of basic prices (CBC). — Resource method. The possibility of using the basis-index method is limited for solving non-trivial problems that have no previously performed analogues. |
— Resource method. At the same time, an engineering company in EPC projects has the opportunity to determine the cost of the design stage at cost through an integrated approach. |
| Selection of equipment used in the project | |
| — It is carried out on the basis of the design indicators declared by the manufacturers. — To be carried out by persons familiar with the characteristics of the equipment, but not experienced in its installation or operation. |
– It is carried out on the basis of design indicators declared by manufacturers. In addition to this: – selection of equipment is carried out on the basis of a manufacturer’s check; at the same time, the engineering company evaluates the production capabilities and experience of the supplier, and has agreements on cooperation with manufacturers with a number of manufacturers that provide additional "pluses"; — members of the project team have practical experience in the installation / operation of equipment, which allows them to give an expert assessment of the equipment; – the choice of equipment is carried out taking into account the actual terms and conditions of delivery; - the requirements and restrictions associated with the installation work are taken into account. |
| Formation of the construction schedule | |
| Based on: - technological sequence of work; — the normative labor intensity of the types of work determined by the Collection of Basic Prices (CBC). |
— Based on the technological sequence of work. — The timing of the stages is determined on the basis of the development of the project for the production of works by the production and technical department. — Takes into account the timing of a possible / planned "stop" of the installation or production. — Takes into account the terms of delivery to the construction site of the required materials. |
| Possible range of tasks to be solved during the implementation of the object | |
| — Implementation of design and working documentation. — Support during the examination of design and working documentation. — Author's supervision at the construction stage. |
— Feasibility study of the project. — Performance of expert surveys of existing engineering systems. — Implementation of design and working documentation. — Obtaining the necessary technical conditions from external network organizations. - Working with equipment suppliers. — Support during the examination of design and working documentation. — Author's supervision at the construction stage. - Commissioning works. - Providing transportation. A wide range of engineering companies allows the customer to minimize the cost of maintaining your own project team, which coordinates specialized contractors at different stages of implementation and monitors them. |
I invite blog readers to share their experience of working with design organizations and engineering companies at industrial facilities in the comments and take a short survey.
Only registered users can participate in the survey. , you are welcome.
1. Estimate the share of technical re-equipment and reconstruction facilities in which you took part, relative to the total number over the past 5 years:
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up to 30%
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from 30 to 60%
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more 60%
3 users voted. 1 user abstained.
2. From your practice, what is the average time allotted for the development of working documentation in the objects of technical re-equipment?
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less than 3 months
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3 to 6 months
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over 6 months
3 users voted. 1 user abstained.
3. At what stage of the technical re-equipment project was the final decision on its implementation made:
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upon completion of the feasibility study development stage
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at the stage of signing the TOR for the implementation of the Working Documentation
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after the development of working documentation and cost estimates
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after determining the suppliers of the main equipment, developing the design documentation and cost estimates
2 users voted. 1 user abstained.
4. What is the share of technical re-equipment objects implemented under the EPC contracts scheme, relative to the total number of:
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up to 30%
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30-60%
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more 60%
2 users voted. 1 user abstained.
5. Was there a need at the stage of equipment purchase, construction and installation, commissioning to involve the contractor of working documentation to make changes to it, agree on deviations and conduct field supervision?
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yes, when purchasing equipment
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yes, when conducting construction and installation works and commissioning
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yes, when purchasing equipment, when conducting construction and installation works and commissioning
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no, it was not required
2 users voted. 2 users abstained.
Source: habr.com