DESIGN MANAGEMENT FOR EPC CONTRACT

Abstract

Design management can be defined as the effective management of design process, design planning, cost-effective design, allocation of design liability, and co-ordination of project participants during design process. The fundamental principle of design management is to provide a co-ordinated design on time by fulfilling client’s requirement. Co-ordination among designer, client and contractor is a widespread problem in the construction industry.

Significant advances have made for EPC contract; but only a few examples are available of successful on-time completion of the project. Problems associated with the design process are poor coordination, delay in submission and approval of drawings, lack of documentation, change of scope, unplanned design schedule, and unclear role of project participants.

The design management aims at delivering quality drawings, informative and coordinated design; economical design to reduce project cost and time; environment friendly design. The design process is crucial and makes the process very complex to manage as design and drawings related specifications and standards have lack of clarity in contract documents.

The study aims to understand the process of design management adopted for approval of concept drawings, detail drawings and As-built drawings considering time management for EPC contract. Detail study is based on three case studies of EPC infrastructure project with an effort to understand design management for these projects. This has done by identifying their design approval process, understand the organisational structure involved in design, to understand the time consumption in delivery of design. The survey had been conducted to identify reasons for the design delay.