Valves Management in the (Engineering, Procurement & Construction) industries projects:

Engineering, procurement, construction, and management (EPCM) is a contract-based accord between the client and the contractor. Various phases of this project like procurement, design, construction, and overall project execution management is comes under the responsibility of the contractor.

Engineering

During this phase, refined P&IDs are developed and excel sheets are used to enlist the valves named as first material take-off (MTO). MTO plus relevant valve specifications and datasheets are sent to manufacturers to gain technical and commercial Quotation.

During bid phase, bids are evaluated both commercially and technically and the manufacturers are ranked accordingly. The highest bidder for each bid is finally selected for the final meeting, and then purchase orders are signed.

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Procurement

During this phase, Valves, and Valves related document such as procedures, drawing, reports, and more are delivered by valve supplier. Vendor documents are received and reviewed. And Valves are finally deployed to the construction site.

Construction

During construction phase, valve engineering support and activities

may be required as below:

Chart 1 illustrates the lifecycle of valves from the early phase of engineering until construction in an EPC projects.

CHALLENGES

Various challenges are faced during the different phases of EPCM:

Early Selection of vendor

The challenge here is, during early engineering phase the amount of work associated in terms of valve qualities and quantities are not distinct and especially in case of smaller valves.

Hiring several Manufacturers

In some cases, due to client urgent requirement at reduced cost valves may be purchased from vendors outside the approval list but it imposes several risk factors such as unfamiliarity with the valve manufacturer, uncertainty about the valve manufacturer delivery credit.

Shortage of valve manufacturer capacity

Valve manufacturers are usually involved in more than one order from various clients so they might lose focus of client’s valve order. Therefore, before making any purchase order manufacturer capacity as well as procurement, manufacturing schedule must be verified.

Final stage valve failure

Sometimes valves may get damaged during the transport and later discovered at the construction site. In some cases, valves have to returned to the manufacturer for the proper repair which has drastic effect on the construction schedule.

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