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Planning is a fundamental aspect of R B Plant’s day to day resourcing as well as it is for individual projects. Our proactive approach allows us to be both flexible and efficient in either situation.

The planning of resources is managed on a day to day basis by the General Manager in consultation with the Project Managers and Project Engineers. However, when we are approaching peaks in workloads on specific projects meetings are held to establish a policy on supplementing the existing resources.

The programming of individual projects is led by the Project Engineer with input from discipline engineers and in certain cases specialist suppliers or sub-contractors. The logic and direction of the programme is set up by the Project Engineer on the basis of their skill and experience. In certain cases the data may be processed by a support technician.

Also, as the Project Engineer is involved in the estimating activities this ensures that a change in either activity will be reflected accordingly. This allows the Project Engineer to view the big picture. The programmes, which are normally produced on Microsoft Project, clearly indicate feasibility, design, procurement, construction, commissioning and validation activities as master tasks as well as key dates and milestones. The programmes also take into account ‘must be done by’ and ‘cannot be done until’ constraints, where they apply due to special circumstances.

The programmes are prepared either in Gantt chart or CPA format.

The programming of shutdown work is also a key element. This is closely linked in with procurement, the preparation of tie-in schedules and provision of resources.

Once a programme has been completed it is reviewed critically in terms of ‘economies of scale’ and adjusted accordingly based on in house experience.

Also, when a programme is presented to a client it may in certain cases exceed the specified dates. In such circumstances the Project Engineer will use skill and experience to investigate methods of adjusting dates. In some cases this invites risks of which the client would be notified.

The role of the Project Engineer in this function ensures that the estimating is carried out in close liaison with both the overall programme and specification.

In the preparation of estimates we encourage client discipline engineers to liaise with our own engineers. We also work with QS’s when required to by the client. The final presentation of an estimate is discussed internally in a meeting chaired by a Director of subject to the value, the Managing Director.