Ingenieur Vol.72 ingenieur October 2017-FA3 | Page 62

INGENIEUR
maintenance. The approximate cost overruns
considered from the Engineering, Procurement,
and Construction Management (EPCM) services
and the MC delays contributed RM2 million in
six months for the recovery stage, and the total
overall cost incurred up until Final Acceptance was
RM 8 million in two and a half years.
Survey Questionnaires Analysis
The survey responses were compiled and
observations and an initial development analysis
were made:-
• Respondents/Participants: Engineering,
Procurement, Contract, Construction, and
Commissioning,
• All respondents agreed that MC is
important to the Oil and Gas Industry,
• All respondents agreed that MC is an
important component in the Oil and Gas
Industry,
• All respondents agreed that MC is part of
the handover process from Construction to
Commissioning,
• All respondents agreed that MC is
part of Plant Safety before introducing
hydrocarbons,
• All respondents agreed that MC is part of
Construction Verification of quality systems,
• All respondents agreed that MC is part of
Project Milestone Payment to Consultants
and Contractors,
• All respondents agreed that MC is part of
Project Planning for systematic handover,
• All respondents agreed that MC is part of
Construction Procedures, and
• All respondents agreed that MC is part of
standardisation and consistency in project
execution for upstream and downstream
activities.
Further analysis of the survey questionnaire
showed:
• Respondents were not unanimous on MC
after the Pre-Commissioning Phase.
The pre-commissioning deliberation is the
final stage of construction completion, wherein
the plant facilities are mechanically completed
as per design. The pre-commissioning inspection
and testing are carried out during this phase of
the project. The advantages of involving the
construction team during this stage include the
workforce and equipment being readily available,
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and it also minimises the schedule and cost of
pre-commissioning instead of mobilizing a new
team and equipment.
It is recommended that the pre-commissioning
phase be done before MC and the sequence of
activities can be illustrated as follows:
1. Construction Completion,
2. Pre-Commissioning
• System Mechanical Completion (SMC)
• Partial Mechanical Completion (PMC)
• Reinstatement,
3. Mechanical Completion (MC),
4. Commissioning,
5. Start-up, and
6. Handover.
Potential Problems
Construction and Commissioning Phases
Analysis
The Mechanical Completion Sequence (Figure
6) indicates how the conceptual and planning
timeline versus the actual MC execution during
construction and commissioning phases vary.
It recognised that MC standardization and
systematic execution should be in place before
any construction completion handover can be
released for commissioning. The interfacing
construction and commissioning roles in the MC
system should be well organised as a transitional
handing over process to avoid any misleading
start-ups and operations.
The danger of no proper handing over between
construction and commissioning is that it could
create problems in the overall project milestones,
especially in a critical area such as safety which
could even result in an explosion in a newly
constructed plant. During these overlapping
phases, the plant owner will impose the Permit
To Work (PTW) system on the outstanding punch
list works before the plant can be accepted under
Initial or Provisional Acceptance.
Underlying Cause of Problem
SWOT Analysis:
This MC SWOT Analysis (Table 2) indicates the
underlying weaknesses that could occur in an MC
system execution in a major oil and gas project
leading towards Facility Management Handover
both in upstream and downstream activities.