(63b) Front End Loading – Methods and Examples

The cost of doing it right the first time is much less than repeating and spending good money to fix bad.  Right the first time requires planning and collaborative understanding.  The Front End Loading (FEL) workflow has become the adopted standard to ensure clear definition and active communication of the expectations and completeness of the various details that make up scope for projects.  Scope definition establishes the investment decisions for the effort.  A challenge in discussions of various project ideas is the experience by participants are preconditioned one there understanding of value.  For example, to a business analyst, the cost of a vessel might be simplified to the cost of the materials, whereas to a seasoned project manager the multiplicative factor of 4 or 5 must be considered for all the ancillary items required to take that simple vessel and make it fully safe the functional at the commercial scale.   The Front End Loading method ensures that enough detail is discussed so that expectations can be built upon common ground.  The tension usually comes when the reality of the cost and effort it takes to develop a meaningful FEL Report versus just tacking the label onto a sub-par FEL effort.  Any FEL effort should be a progressive build of detail as the different quality levels of the FEL effort are realized.  Beginning with the traditional ideation Block Flow Diagram (BFDs), a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) emerges.  As equipment and process chemistry is developed, they are documented in the Process Flow Diagram (PFDs).  At some point, the simple excel spreadsheet Mass and Energy Balance (MEB) gives way to one of the four software platforms that supports a working model of the MEB that can be manipulated and scenarios analyzed as bench learnings are incorporated for model validation.  The functional descriptions or process narrative allow the first round of Piping and Instrumentation Diagrams (P&IDs) and Preliminary Hazard Analysis.  Major issues can be identified for further detail analysis.  General arrangements and a space allocation 3D model gives the civil and structural colleagues a chance to optimize the organization of the available space.   The team continues to work with various vendors so that the major equipment specifications and the commodity equipment common bases can be developed for strategic sourcing and maintenance support simplification.  Costs can be assigned as the preliminary automation and control systems master plan helps to drive the balance between manual operations and the needed crewing and the automated functions that are commonplace in a chemical plant.  The FEL progresses and the project execution strategy begins to take shape as the Long Lead Procurement Item List, Design, Construction, and Commissioning Summary Level Effort Schedule, Capital Cost Estimate, Operating Cost Estimate, Construction Strategy and Permit Strategy are made available for a progressive gated approval process to insure expectations are understood and risks are mitigated to insure project success.