Plant costs controls

Operation and Maintenance. Engineering and constmction firms can be contracted to take charge of treatment-plant operation and maintenance and manage other aspects necessary to meet performance goals, such as hiring and cost controls (7). Costs to the municipalities are reported to be competitive with the more traditional approach of management by municipal employees (8). 

Administration of the plant engineering organization and personnel as well as related financial considerations (budgeting, forecasting, cost control), training, and record keeping... 

Because systems are normally not designed for use with this type of fluid, certain aspects should be reviewed with the equipment and fluid suppliers before a decision to use such fluids can be taken. These are compatibility with filters, seals, gaskets, hoses, paints and any non-ferrous metals used in the equipment. Condensation corrosion effect on ferrous metals, fluid-mixing equipment needed, control of microbial infection together with overall maintaining and control of fluid dilution and the disposal of waste fluid must also be considered. Provided such attention is paid to these designs and operating features, the cost reductions have proved very beneficial to the overall plant cost effectiveness. 

The economic treatment discussed so far is hmited to analytical laboratories where samples are received from an outside source it will not apply to laboratories attached to processing plants performing quahty-control analyses. The cost of the automatic equipment, in these cases, wiU be small in relation to the plant cost, and it wiU be the improved precision of analysis and speed of response that wiU have the greatest economic significance. Automatic analysers in production hnes are ideal for quality control, and there is ample scope for additional automation. However, this is an area where the... 

Modularity. Economic competitiveness requires that the construction time be shortened dramatically. Modular construction techniques arc a key contiibntoi to achieving this goal and are a proven approach to cost control in major construction projects. Modularization provides for a larger percentage of factory construction, rather than field construction. New innovative concepts will rely heavily on modularization and will be centered around lower unit power outputs, factory assembly, and transportation of modules to the plant site. The overall plant size target is 600 MWe net electrical output. 

Induction furnaces are optimal for the melting operation. Their good temperature control permits accurate adjustment of the degree of oxidation. Since the melt is held in constant turbulent motion by the magnetic field produced in the primary coil, it is well mixed, even for short melt times. In comparison to the most frequently used resistance furnaces, plant cost and power consumption are higher. 

Plant layout is one area where real cost control can be exercised because of the impact on material and construction costs as well as on operating efficiency. The final layout, usually developed during the basic engineering stage, requires a high degree of experience and the participation of the entire project team as well as the contractor s specialists and Owner s operations and maintenance personnel. 

Base hours are all the home office hours required to perform all the engineering, procurement, subcontracting, project management, estimating, and cost control for a normal case plant. They are computed as follows with the aid of Tables 19.26, 19.27, 19.28, and 19.31. 

Firms often lease process simulators and customize them to model processes running in their plant. Proprietary data and process information are added to the programs and they become the plant process control system. Add another function to the program and it follows the cost and composition of feed materials and computes the process set points that will yield the distribution of products that maximize the economic return for the full array of products. 

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