The story:
When faced with a potential failure of an existing system, a fast track project was introduced and approved to commence construction with an incomplete design. This allowed material to be ordered and the civil portion of the project to be completed early. However other aspects of the project encountered problems.
The impact:
Fabrication of the piping and structural was completed concurrently with design. This led to inefficient fabrication and out of sequence deliveries. Vendor drawings for equipment were not finalized prior to fabrication, leading to costly rework and delays.
Root cause:
Engineering documents were not completed before fabrication, so the construction sequences were determined by the completion of the design not on the most efficient Path of Construction.
Lesson learned:
Early involvement of teams throughout the project, including the Construction Team, allows collaboration with designers to determine the Path of Construction and remove constructability bottlenecks.
Building from experience:
Team Builder Solutions advocates for the use of Advanced Work Packaging Best Practice to adress this common issue. In this case, the development of Engineering Work Packages (EWPs) and Construction Work Packages (CWPs) allows identification and management of constraints in order to assist the fast track schedule and identifies long lead time items that need to be ordered during the planning process. Development of IWPs, based on the CWPs, allows for constraint free execution. By utilizing the AWP Best Practice, relevant Engineering Packages are completed prior to fabrication, and an efficient design is completed more quickly, allowing for a structured execution strategy, and addressing the issue.