PLM for Engineering Procurement Construction (EPC)

In the EPC, the contractor designs the installation, procure the necessary materials and construct it. The contractor carries the project risk for schedule as well as budget depending on the agreed scope of work. Some EPC companies doing business from proposal, design, construction, start-up, operation and decommissioning of industrial plants, in few words the whole Plant Lifecycle.

The ultimate “owners” of the projects in many cases have a different set of priorities. The problem is that every owner has different needs and wants to make changes to a “standard” plant concept.

Challenges of turnkey projects in EPC business

· Proposal

· Completion of Design

· Procurement of Equipment

· Logistics

· Managing the designer’s and contractor’s risk

· Dealing with regulators, Authorities, Third-Parties

On many complex projects, particularly in the areas of mining, manufacturing, power, nuclear and process, the cost and delivery challenges in the procurement of specialized equipment present the greatest risk to the project

While selecting the PLM application for EPC business, implementer and owner considers Engineer-Procure-Construct phases and respective stakeholders of the plant.

EPC business works on two aspects Products, which develops the equipments and Projects, which manage erection, maintenance of the plant. Projects handle more risks and ready to develop new equipments based on the plant requirement.

Leading PLM applications and their integration with CAD, ERP and environment compliance have the features to manage EPC business, still some gaps in PLM application I experienced for EPC are

1. Some CAD tools yet to integrate with PLM.

2. Design automation and PLM integration

3. Project management is not efficient or user friendly for

a. Import/Export feature

b. Alerts and follow-ups

c. Resource Management

d. Budget and costing

4. CAE tool and PLM integration

5. BOM Export / Import is not efficient

6. ERP and PLM integration is costly in terms of software license and skill set

7. Difficulties in Legacy system integration

Each of the above is very important for respective stakeholders. Development of PLM started with document management for engineering and moved towards change, collaboration and configuration management. I feel the gaps can be bridged when PLM product definition group, EPC experts and PLM product technician shake their hands.