Accurately scoping process analyzer projects

THE FIRST article in this series (“How to Launch an Analyzer System Reliability Program,” Control, July 2006, pp 49-53) noted the close relationship between the lifetime cost of a process analyzer project and the attention given to reliability during the concept (scope development) and design (detailed engineering) project stages. This article covers the details of a project scope document. 

One of a project engineer/manager’s most challenging jobs, especially during project scope development, is the avoidance of “meatball engineering”—a poorly scoped project that leads to minimally effective results. (Gregory Hale, InTech, Oct. 2004) Key to this avoidance is “knowledge management” and “good client” development, says Hale.

The engineer must elicit from the client—the funding source—all the information required for a good project and gently, but persistently, minimize chances that he becomes his “own worst enemy,” causing unwise scope-cutting or, conversely, “scope creep,” or demanding  procedural shortcuts, illogical cost-cutting and schedule changes. The project engineer must ensure communication with clients or accept--often unjustly--responsibility for missing project goals, and it falls to him or her to make sure this doesn’t happen. (Mark Hoske, Control Engineering supplement, Dec. 2004, pp.12-14)

The information that must be addressed is often part of the front-end engineering design, the front-end loading, the project execution model, and the independent project analysis. (R. Mead, H. Sedgwick, and S. van Soest, Hydrocarbon Processing, Sept. 2004, pp. 69-74)

Now we shall address formal details of the project approval scope. Following are the working assumptions:

• The analyzer project engineer begins with a brief capital work order that includes an operative statement, such as, “Install analyzer on West Final Purification Tower to measure residual reactant.” Other information includes a desired project completion date, the purpose of the project (safety, environmental, economic expansion, etc.), and sufficient technical detail for the engineer to generate a few questions for the first user-client inquiry.
• The management approval package must include a written scope, cost estimate (+/-10%), preliminary impact review (personnel and process safety, environmental and utility), red-lined (marked with additions, changes and demolitions) drawings, project schedule and analyzer, and associated instrument specifications.

We shall concentrate on the written scope, which probably has a standard format, but note that other documents frequently contain information needed to develop the project scope and, conversely, that the project scope will eventually be reflected directly or indirectly in the other documents.

Table I shows a typical project approval scope document structure. For simplicity, let us assume that the detailed estimate document generally follows the structure of the detailed scope, and that the latter does not include dollar amounts.

TABLE 1:

Typical Project Approval Scope of Work Document Structure

1. Project Title and Number
2. Project Purpose
3. Brief Project Scope
4. Brief Project Justification
5. Detailed Scope
6. Potential Construction Problems
7. Potential Cost Problems
8. List of Supporting Documents

Table 2 shows the detailed scope structure that would be included under Item 5 in Table I.

TABLE 2:

Typical Work Types Included in Detailed Scope

• Architectural and landscaping 
• Civil 
• Foundations 
• Structural and pipe racks 
• Roadways and yards 
• Railroads 
• Waterways and navigation 
• Below-ground piping, trenches, ditches and excavation 
• Mechanical 
• Unfired pressure vessels 
• Fired pressure vessels 
• Storage tanks 
• Rotating equipment 
• Above-ground piping 
• Instrument and Electrical 
• Field instruments (other than final control elements and pressure safety devices) 
• Final control elements 
• Pressure safety devices 
• Local signal cabling (analog and discrete) 
• Home-run signal cabling 
• Rack-room wiring 
• PLC and hardwired relay panels 
• DCS 
• Software 
• Computers 
• Voice and digital/protocol-based communications 
• Motors 
• Electrical below 480 Vac (including local wiring) 
• Electrical above 480 Vac but below 13.8Kvac 
• Electrical above 13.8KV 
• Spare Parts 
• Commissioning 
• Construction Indirects 
• Construction management and field supervision 
• Equipment rentals 
• Temporary changes