Detail Design
The biggest part of any design project in terms of cost is the detail design phase. All too often design teams hit the ground running, but unfortunately in the wrong direction! As we have stated in the section on front end engineering, the conceptual design must be right before starting detail design if unnecessary re-work is to be avoided.
Although the biggest savings on a project are realised at the front end, this is very difficult to quantify - you need to ask the question "what would the project have cost if we hadn't come up with these clever ideas?" However, at the detail design phase, cost savings can be readily measured. Most (all?) companies have manhour norms for detail design activities, and we are all familiar with the manhour over-run and missed milestone dates.
Our alternative to this is very simple - we will estimate the detail design manhours (using a client's own norms if required), and, depending on the size and complexity of the project, then DEDUCT between 20% and 30%. This reduced manhour figure is then converted to a fixed price, with the promise that if you don't change the scope, we won't change the price! We have all probably experienced low "fixed" prices followed up with huge variations - we do not operate in this manner - if you change an instrument tag number, add a light fitting to the deck or add a couple of transmitters to a P&ID, in our book that is not a variation, it is just normal project development. (On the other hand, adding an additional gas compression package would definitely be a change in scope!)
We can therefore offer clients very significant cost savings on design projects, with the added bonus that you will never again have to pay someone to do a job, and then pay him again to fix the mistakes!
However should you wish we can provide Discipline Engineering support on an hourly basis.
