centred on multi-disciplinary engineering, is primarily a matter of

project management practice, and can be quite separately treated as

such. Both of these views can be dangerous. From level one to level
four, there are common threads, mainly of engineering information and
its development, which have to be taken into account when making
management decisions. The understanding and maintenance of these
threads, many of whose origins are at the detail level, are the essence of
the discipline of project engineering.
The interaction between project strategy and engineering execution
operates in two directions. It will be seen within this text that the adoption
of project strategy � including for instance the structure of the relationship
between client and contractor � has major implications for the way in
which engineering is optimally conducted. In reverse, the best project
strategy (for each party) is likely to depend on some of the engineering
realities.
The technical content of this book posed a particular challenge of
selection and condensation. Nearly every topic could be expanded into
several volumes, and must in practice be covered by specialist engineers
with far more knowledge than is presented. The intentions behind the
information presented are twofold. Firstly, to include just sufficient
information for a generalist (the project engineer) to manage the specialists,
or to assist the specialists to co-ordinate with each other and find the
best compromises. Secondly, to include some of the author�s own
experience (spanning some 30 years) of simple but important items
which do not seem to be conveniently presented in textbooks or standards,
but which can prove important and costly.
1.3 Methodology of presentation
Project engineers have traditionally learnt much of their job-knowledge
by experience. The mainly technical aspects can be taught in isolation as
an academic subject, but even these have to be tempered by experience,
to match theory to application. The behavioural and management
aspects of job performance are even more dependent on the acquisition
of relevant experience. Through a few project cycles in relatively junior
roles, engineers have gradually broadened their skills and their understanding of
what is going on, inside and outside of the project team, and
become aware of the consequences of design decisions and of the way
actions and events interact. They have learned to recognize problems,
and learned some standard solutions and how to choose the best6 Handbook for
Process Plant Project Engineers
solution for the circumstances. They have also absorbed something of
the culture of their industry, and learnt how to behave and influence
others, to make the best of their working relationships. They have
become ready for a leading or management role.
It is our objective here to produce a text which accelerates this process
of learning, and enhances it by trying to transfer some of the author�s own
experience and retrospective analysis of successes and failures. Surely the
process of learning by experience can be accelerated, and some of the pain
reduced.
A limitation of trying to synthesize such a learning process is that a
balanced progression must be achieved, in which all the interacting
subjects are advanced more or less in parallel. It is no good giving a
dissertation on the merits and techniques of compressing project schedules
unless the more normal schedule practice and its logic are understood. It
is equally fruitless (and boring, and unlikely to be absorbed) to discuss the
finer points of project management, let alone strategy development, until
it is understood what are the work components (and their characteristics)
which have to be managed and optimized.
The book has therefore been set out into six cycles, each targeted at a
different and progressive stage of development. The first cycle consists of
an overview of a process plant, the process technology package, a very
brief outline of the management of a project to build a plant, and a brief
description of the engineering work and its management. The second
cycle looks at the project environment, in particular some non-engineering
factors which influence the work of the project. The third cycle is about
project initiation and conceptual development. This becomes possible
when the nature of the project and its environment are understood. We
have also chosen to address the subject of hazards and safety at this point.
The fourth cycle addresses plant engineering technical issues, at a more
detailed level, and is the largest component of the book. The fifth cycle is
concerned with project engineering and management issues which need
a particular emphasis in this industry, leading up to a final cycle which
discusses strategy development