Engineering Encyclopedia Project Management

Managing Materials During Construction

Procurement Responsibility

The primary responsibilities for procurement of project materials rests with the design office;
however, unforeseen circumstances do arise during the construction phase which require
procurement action. The Project Engineer should identify the situation to the design office for
remedial action on their part.
If the design office has destaffed, the Project Engineer can utilize the services of the Program
Management Contractor or the Materials Supply Organization, MSO.

Procurement Preferences—In Kingdom or Out of Kingdom

Saudi Aramco prefers to purchase materials In Kingdom. The purchase of materials In Kingdom
offers several advantages including:

• Easier communications

• Shifts responsibility for shipping and logistics to vendor

Consideration in Successful Materials Procurement

The procurement of materials within a reasonable cost and a delivery commensurate with the
schedule is the criteria for a successful Materials Procurement Program.

In order to be successful, the Project Engineer should plan to consistently dedicate time and
energy to retrieving and anticipating potential problem areas.

When the Project Engineer observes a trend toward a problem, he should address it immediately
while there may still be time to do something about it for minimal costs, instead of later when
there may be no time remaining to correct the problem or where the costs to correct the problem
are high.

Saudi Aramco DeskTop Standards 3

Engineering Encyclopedia Project Management
Managing Materials During Construction

LOGISTICS, SITE HANDLING AND STORAGE OF MATERIALS IN THE FIELD

Introduction

Logistics is a term applied to the activities of obtaining, maintaining, and moving manpower,
materials, and supplies in support of the project. Logistics considerations must be applied to all
project materials from the beginning to the end of the procurement process.

Logistics Consideration

The procurement process includes the following steps:

• Detailed design and PR preparation

• Purchase Requisition Bid

• Purchase Order (PO) placement

• Manufacture

• Inspection

• Testing

• Packing

• Shipping

• Customs

• Transportation to Storehouse

• Inspection

• Issue to Contractor

• Transportation to jobsite storage

Saudi Aramco DeskTop Standards 4

Engineering Encyclopedia Project Management
Managing Materials During Construction

There are many variations that may occur in the procurement process. Packing and shipping may
involve domestic packing and inland shipping (rail or road) to a marshaling yard. The order may
be consolidated with other orders. A number of loading/unloading, intermediate storage, and
inspection steps might be involved. Equipment may be made by more than one manufacturer (e.g.,
motor drives sent to pump manufacturer, or trays or tray valves sent to vessel fabricator); pieces
may be assembled at some intermediate point instead of at the manufacture’s shop or at the
jobsite.

Site Handling Consideration

From the standpoint of logistics, the ideal situation at jobsite is to be able to place 100% of
materials and equipment directly into final position from the vehicle that transports it to the
jobsite.

The ideal is never achieved in practice, but a well-planned project will save considerable time and
money by minimizing the number of times materials are moved, stored, or otherwise handled at
the site. Beyond that, when they do occur, it is necessary that each of these activities be carried
out as efficiently as practicable. On an average job, about 85% of the field labor cost of moving,
storing and handling will be for other than placement in the final location.

A successful material logistics program for the jobsite will require careful selection of physical
support facilities and implementation of an effective control system.

Physical support facilities include construction dock, roads, railroad spur, warehouse and storage
areas, cranes, derricks, gin poles, trucks, trailers, lowboys, forklifts, conveyors, concrete pumps,
bins, rack, pallets, special equipment, etc. Communications equipment (e.g. handheld radios) is
also included in the category of physical support.

Smooth material flow and adequate storage are prime considerations in developing the physical
support facilities. Initial layout, design, and equipment selection should be carried out in the
design office under the Project Engineer's direction.

In the context of material logistics, control means having the correct material available when and
where it is needed. From the standpoint of overall construction efficiency, material is only one of
many ingredients, and control means getting all the elements together when needed to carry out a
specific construction task. Besides materials the other elements required are:

• Manpower

• Instructions (drawings and supervision)

• Tools and Equipment

Saudi Aramco DeskTop Standards 5