Engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) project management for reducing cost and time: A case study of petrochemical plant

Abstract

At present, EPC project is one of hiring contracts for engineering design and construction of petrochemical plant. EPC project management is management under the lump-sum contract or stipulated sum contract of which the owner has essentially assigned all the risks to the contractor, who in turn can be expected to ask for a higher markup to take care of unforeseen contingencies. Generally, complexities of project activity are the main factor in project management. Therefore, effective project scheduling is the important method to reduce cost and time. The Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) is basically a project scheduling management and control tool are widely used for planning and coordinating each activity in large-scale project. The Critical Path Method (CPM) is used extensively to find the longest path in the network diagram or the shortest duration in which the project can be completed. The researcher has aimed to apply PERT and CPM with simulation software add-in Crystal Ball in MS Excel to develop the optimal method for increasing certainty of project finished and reducing time of complexities project duration. To minimize project duration, overall monthly project management cost will be decreased. The finding of this paper showed that using PERT and CPM applied with simulation software add-in Crystal Ball in MS Excel in scheduling project could minimize project duration from 356 days to 312 days and maximize certainty of project finished from 24.49% to approach 100%.