Hydrocarbon Processing - November 2021 - 31

Engineering and Construction
organizations have agreed to make it acquisition ready. The upstream
benefit to this is that the engineering team is freed from
the cumbersome process of issuing and maintaining MRs.
The construction organization no longer needs to wait for
drawings (documents) to start planning and executing work.
They can watch the design evolve from the model viewer, attached
to the CDE and objects with attributes. This enables
the construction team to passively watch the design evolve and
intercede in a timely manner, as opposed to being surprised
upon receipt of issued-for-construction (IFC) drawings (documents).
The construction team can also query acquisition status
from procurement-owned attributes of an object, again from
the model viewer, as opposed to a document-centric execution
where they must query either a procurement team member or,
at best, access a procurement automation tool.
Where the engineering, procurement and construction
(EPC) organization has collaborated with suppliers and contractors
to deliver an integrated model, EPC team members can
access the supplier/contractor information from the CDE or
model viewer, thus streamlining information access.
Data-centric collaboration of all materials-transactional
parties/model integration. Timely and thoughtful collaboration
between an EPC contractor and third parties-such
as suppliers, subcontractors and JV companies-has always
been a key element to success. However, having to collaborate
via documents has limited the collaborative effectiveness. With
a transition to a data-centric, object-oriented execution, the
prospect of communicating via data (not through documents
such as drawings) and model integration (with a data maturity
attribute assigned to each object to allow parties to share information
as it evolves) opens a huge communication channel.
In effect, each collaborator can share information in a preliminary
state without the data owner being committed to that
preliminary information. Downstream parties would gain insight
that would not have been available if they had to wait for
a document. Any reliance of that upstream preliminary data
will be at the peril of the downstream party if the data maturity
attribute of the upstream object is not at a level that communicates
commitment. Following are several examples that
demonstrate this. Of course, collaborative model integration
between contractual parties will not happen overnight. It will
be a process that will evolve as technology facilitates it and as
the value of more intelligence in a BIM matures.
Using CDE and BIM to eliminate supplier document
reviews. Information about each item of materials impacts
design and construction, along with project startup, whether
it is a simple item like a valve or a complex item like a compressor.
In the document-centric execution environment, project
execution entailed a document review process where suppliers
would issue and deliver drawings, specification information
and manuals to the EPC contractor for review and acceptance.
For complex materials (e.g., compressors, pressure vessels
and transformers), detailed design generally was an iterative
process with multiple submittals before the supplier design
was approved and accepted. Not only was the design evolution
impacted while the design team awaited formal submittals, but
the review process also required a bureaucracy simply to faciliFIG.
5. The data life of an object.
tate a submittal process that required recording of the document
receipt, routing through impacted discipline teams and
documentation of comments.
A data-centric environment-where collaborative relationships
(such as the EPC contractor/supplier or JV partners)
engage in a model integration process, with routine (e.g., once
per week) data transfers for complex equipment-not only
streamlines information flow but also allows the downstream
parties to view the design as it evolves, offering timely preliminary
feedback for an immature design and formal comments
for a mature design. Additionally, it eliminates the document
review bureaucracy that is required by the process.
While the primary benefit to the EPC contractor will be in
upstream engineering activities, significant ancillary benefits
will flow. These include a quicker review turnaround to facilitate
a shorter schedule, along with benefits to procurement expediting
and supplier quality surveillance efforts.
Elimination of the concept of a materials requisition.
The concept of an MR is the epitome of a process required
in document-centric execution. An MR is the culmination of
engineering teams capturing mature design information and
quantifying that information into the documents' communicating
scope (commodity and quantities), as well as technical
and submittal requirements for that scope. This process is a
throwback to the days when only the engineering team knew
when the design was matured to a level that would allow the
EPC contractor to initiate acquisition. For these MRs, EPC
organizations have had to employ teams of skilled technical
resources to articulate technical materials and submittal data,
manage design maturity of commodity scope to quantify and
time MRs to support the project schedule, and produce and
manage these MR documents. All too often, MRs were not
timely, as they were suffering from a silo mentality to optimize
the processes involved in MR preparation or because the engineering
resources and tools did not have the functionality to
capture needed dates of individual items.
A data-centric environment offers EPC contractors the ability
to eliminate the concept of an MR through the communication
of object design maturity in the CDE. The veil of individual
materials (object) acquisition readiness is removed, freeing the
engineering team of the responsibility in a document-centric
environment to communicate acquisition readiness. Engineering
teams will still need to articulate technical and submittal reHydrocarbon
Processing | NOVEMBER 2021 31
Hydrocarbon Processing - November 2021

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