The project schedule cannot be generated in any mechanistic

fashion. Invariably, the critical path can be shortened almost ad

infinitum by taking various shortcuts (in other words, by changing
the schedule logic � not just by employing more resources or working
faster). These possible shortcuts come at a cost or risk, which must
be balanced against the benefits.
� The nature of the industry served by process plant usually puts a
high premium on early plant completion and operation.
� The plant has to be constructed on site, to suit its site, wherever that
may be.
The degree to which these and other features are present, together with
the more obvious comparisons of size, cost, and complexity, dictate the
intensity of the challenge to the project team. All of these features have
to be addressed during the plant engineering and its follow-up.
1.2 The structure and components of this book
The main objective of this book is to give guidance on how the project
engineer�s work is carried out in practice. We have therefore to consider
how all items of information interact, and how they are brought
together in each practical situation. This is a distinctly different objective
from that of a technical reference book, such as Perry�s Chemical
Engineer�s Handbook. This is a recommended reference for any engineer
in the process plant field, and contains a wealth of information, but it is
targeted and indexed by technical subject. We need a different structure
here, in which the sequence of information is important and is projectrelated. It
is convenient to address the structure at four levels.
In defining these levels, an immediate pitfall can be identified and
should be avoided. In organizational and management terminology,
invariably there is a high and a low level. This should not be confused
with relative importance � all of the organization components are
important. Within each level, there are likely to be relatively less and
more important functions for a given project, but a project can be
jeopardized just as easily by poor detail design as by poor management.
Subject to this qualification, the base tier, level one, consists of the
activities of detailed design, procurement of parts, delivery to site,
construction, and commissioning, and all of these will be addressed.
Inevitably in an integrating text such as this, most topics have to be
discussed at a relatively superficial level, concentrating on those facets
which are more essential, either to the interactions with the whole, or
because of relatively high individual impact to the project and the plant.4
Handbook for Process Plant Project Engineers
At the level above, level two, reside the technical focus and project
control, which give direction to all the detailed work. The centrepiece
of this is the process technology package. The technological content
of such packages is outside the scope of this book � it is the domain
of many experts and organizations, embracing diverse fields of technical
specialization such as catalytic conversion and hydro-metallurgy, and
niches within these fields which yet consume entire careers. We will
rather (and briefly) address the generalized make-up of such packages,
of how they relate to the plant to be built and to the project around
them. In addition, we will discuss the system of engineering and information
management (also at level two), which governs the performance
of level one activities.
Not particularly addressed at level two, because of the focus of this
book, are the methodologies of managing procurement, logistics,
contracts, finance, and construction. The reader with greater project
management aspirations is advised to refer to specialized texts on these
subjects. We will, however, discuss the principal interfaces with
engineering work and its management.
At level three, we have a management system for the entire project.
This is conventionally broken down into three or four components,
namely management of scope, quality, cost, and schedule. (Scope and
quality may be regarded as a single issue, a practice not recommended
by the author.) Health and safety considerations may properly also be
managed at this overview level, and must be included in any such text.
At level four, there is only one item, project strategy. This has to
ensure that the project is correctly conceived (technically, commercially,
economically, socially) and embodies the skeleton of the over-arching
plan which will ensure that the goods are delivered in the optimum
fashion. Inevitably the strategy must deal with the issues of relationship
management between the principal stakeholders, for example the plant
owner (usually, a complexity of people and interests) and contractors,
including possibly a single lump sum or managing contractor, and a
variety of sub-contractors and suppliers. The strategies are bound to be
different for each stakeholder, reflecting the basic question of �What do
I want out of this project?�
There is a significant body of professional opinion that such considerations of
strategy are not appropriate in the context of what should
be the technical field of engineering. (In the author�s experience, there
are also several senior executives who are relatively ignorant of the links
between engineering and strategy, and feel quite threatened!) There are
those who argue that management of large projects, whether or n