What's So Special About Process Control Projects?

Many process control application projects experience cost overruns, late completion, difficult startups, failure to achieve promised operating performance, and high maintenance costs. The causes include poor definition, scope changes, difficult technology issues, unexpected problems, and many others--all of which are actually due to poor project management.

Failures in process control project management are becoming worse as younger engineers who are more adept at the new technologies but have little feel for even informal project management concepts are finding themselves in lead engineering roles. At the same time, owners are requiring more competitive fixed-price work and shorter schedules, and are putting much more emphasis on achieving expected project results.

General project management techniques have improved significantly in recent years through the work of the Project Management Institute (PMI), the Construction Industry Institute (CII), and other groups. At the same time, many areas other than facility engineering and construction are discovering the discipline, and all seem to be putting more emphasis on good project management. Along with improved techniques, there is much more emphasis on:

* The role of the project manager as the person in responsible charge, not just a referee for problems.

* General management skills such as team-building, motivation, and communication.

* Comprehensive planning and control of the entire project including cost, not just schedule (as was often the case in the past, particularly for non-capital projects); quality (really working to manage it); risk (not to be feared but as just another feature of projects to be managed); scope (documentation); and change management.

* Using projects and project management concepts to manage much of the work of a company, not just things that have traditionally been done as projects.

* The Project Management Office (and its financial benefit) to support common methodologies.

PMI was formed just over two decades ago. Its membership has been growing at an average rate of more than 20% per year and is now nearing 100,000. The flagship PMI document, A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBoK) (1), has a circulation of nearly one million copies and is the worldwide standard for methodologies and terminology for all types of projects. PMI certification for project managers, the Project Management Professional (PMP), has done a lot to disseminate the PMBoK terminology and methodology. More than 50,000 project managers met the rigorous requirements of experience, eduction, and testing needed to achieve PMP certification.

However, process control application projects often have little formal project management. In fact, the lead engineer may be so focused on technology that he or she tries hard to avoid any project management responsibilities at all. It is even less likely that newer techniques are implemented.

Process control projects typically include some or all of these tasks:

* Gather data from an operating manufacturing plant via sensors.

* Use those data to automatically do something to the operation.

* Convert the data into knowledge to better manage and improve the operation.

* Integrate with the supply chain.

* Provide a fully functional operator interface.

* Manage plant assets.

These projects are called by a variety of names including industrial automation, instrumentation and control, automation and control, control systems, or process automation as well as process control. They have so many differences from other types of projects that even the best generic project management techniques are not enough. And while the PMBoK fully applies to nearly all projects including process control, extensions to the PMBoK are encouraged and have been developed for a number of specific areas--but not yet for process control. Little information specifically on process control projects has even been published. One of the few sources of specific information is a new ISA course.

Ten special characteristics of process control projects (Table I) are covered here with some techniques for handling each one. Some of these techniques are generic and some are unique to process control. The techniques apply equally to situations where the lead engineer is working for an internal customer, and where the lead engineer is a systems integrator or consultant and the customer is the lead individual employed by the owner.

Process control can deliver significant manufacturing cost savings in raw materials, energy, and labor; capacity increases without capital expenditure; supply chain improvements; and/or product quality and other strategic improvements. You should: