REMINDERCheck in on the
COLLABORATE mobile app
30% 60% 90% IFC EngineeringWhat is the Project Progress
Prepared by:Trevor WattProject Controls SpecialistEPCM Solutions
Using P6 to DecipherSession ID#: 15412
Rules of Credit
■ Document Count▪ Very accurate during drawing phase▪ Lacks ability to progress 3d model / calculations▪ Hard to identify analysis and design changes
— They don’t affect the document count
■ Review package 30 – 60 – 90 – IFC▪ Inaccurate▪ Leaves a lot of interpretation to the discipline lead engineers▪ Hard to identify change
Rules of Credit
■ Activity Based▪ Very Accurate through all phases▪ Easily identifies changes and slippage in schedule▪ Provides more insight to resource loading▪ Can provide detailed historical information for future estimates▪ Can be used for “What If” scenarios▪ Clear defined information as to what will be provided and
expected in each review package▪ Can provide cost, hour and schedule alignment.
What is required?
■ Level of completion of review packages▪ A document specifying what deliverables are to be included, and
at what level are they to be completed too.
■ WBS that aligns with the Level of completion document▪ Each deliverable has its own deliverable number▪ This forms the bottom level of the WBS.▪ The deliverable will be broken down further via activities
■ CBS which mimics the WBS
Level of Completion Document
■ Define the Detailed Engineering review stage gates
■ Define the required disciplines to complete the package
■ Define the Deliverables that are to be part of the complete package▪ Define the level of completion of each deliverable for each
review package
Defining the WBS
■ After the deliverables are defined a coding structure and system needs to be derived
■ Typical structure for an engineering project would look like so:▪ Project / Phase / Area / Sub Area / CWP Package / EWP
Package / Discipline / Deliverable / Activity▪ Project to CWP section should be defined by owner / client▪ The EWP to Activity should be defined by Engineering company▪ Next the codes should be defined for each level of the skeleton
structure.▪ Should be consistent through the project right through till the
end of construction.
WBS / CBS alignment
■ In the previous example the CBS or cost code used in the financial system ends up as:▪ 4.311.900.100▪ 4 – Current Project (PS4) added to the CBS but is basically the
project schedule name, so not included in project WBS▪ 3 – Detailed Design▪ 1 – Area (W)▪ 1 – Package▪ 190 – Process▪ 300 – Control Narrative
P6 Typical Settings
■ Fixed Durations and Units■ Auto compute Actuals – Off■ Calculate cost from Units – Off■ Physical % Complete■ Budgeted Values with planned dates■ Recalculate Actual units and cost when duration % changes –
Off■ Link Actual and Actual This period Units and Cost■ P6 V7 requires costs to be loaded for performance %
complete to calculate.■ Activity % complete should be used under Earned Value in
the Admin preferences.
Planning
■ After the structure is defined and entered within the schedule activities can then be created▪ The most important ones to identify first are the outside client
deliverables that will be required from the client.▪ Then the internal discipline to discipline deliverables.▪ These should all be presented as milestones within the
schedule.
■ Each discipline lead should be brought in to help define/plan there own individual scope.▪ I have seen mass planning sessions, and these do not work.▪ Start with each discipline individually then work with the group
as whole to define interdisciplinary logic.
Planning
■ Define the activities within each WBS or deliverable bucket▪ Define durations and Budgeted labour units for each activity▪ Most logic within a particular bucket is FS▪ Try to keep activities within a 10 day duration.▪ And keep in mind the milestones deliverables that were defined.
■ Define the logic between the buckets
■ Define the logic from the outside deliverables client or external discipline deliverable.
■ Review as a project team.
Planning
■ Check resource curves to make sure project is feasible.■ Level as necessary.■ Check early and late curves.■ Add in any schedule risk required.■ Verify the critical path.
▪ In engineering projects, the critical path can easily be defined usually by the client and inter-discipline deliverables.
▪ If one deliverable isn’t met the particular discipline usually can’t get much traction on the beginning of their design.
▪ Eg. Oil and gas pipeline detailed design— Transients to stress to structural. (could be multiple iterations)
Loading Budgets
■ Once the schedule is fully activity loaded▪ Budgets can be loaded via an excel import▪ Important that all resources have calculate cost from units
turned off.▪ Export Project to excel selecting Resource Assignments check
box▪ Select Budgeted Units and Budgeted Cost▪ Multiply your units by your wage rate within excel, and re-import
to P6.
Place holders for Actuals
■ Since we are not coding to the activity level we need to add in place holders for uploading the actuals from the financial system.▪ Can be WBS summary or LOE activity type.▪ Activtity ID must match the CBS code from the cost system.▪ Assign applicable resource with no budgeted units or cost.▪ One is required for each WBS bucket.
Progressing the schedule
■ What questions to ask?▪ Actual Start?▪ Actual Finish?▪ Remaining Labour units▪ Remaining Duration
■ Make a global change to calculate Physical % complete, The calculation is as below, but UDF must be used to represent this caluclation▪ Physical % complete = (budget – remaining) / budget
■ Essentially the above formula will calculate the earned labourunits.
Uploading Actuals
■ Export to excel using resource assignments.▪ Select Actual Units and Actual Costs columns▪ Delete all activities that do not have an activity ID that is a CBS
code.▪ Use Vlookup or some other format to populate excel sheet▪ Reimport into P6.
What info does all this give you?
■ With this setup you now can apply all EV columns to your layout.
■ The progress is measured at the individual activity level to provide overall progress.
■ Full resource curves and leveling are available if required.■ Cashflows can be represented in either excel or P6.■ Changes are easily identified by the team during progress
meetings.■ Most importantly you will not over claim progress.
Summation
■ There are multiple ways to progress engineering, but the only unit that really matters is hours.
■ Identification of changes is crucial to success▪ This is achieved by a detailed schedule
■ With a proper set-up, execution and management of resources becomes easier and more accurate
■ The bottom line is what ever happens during the engineering phase, can affect construction two fold.