The Engineering Work and Its Management

Not particularly addressed at level two, because of the focus of this book, are the methodologies of managing procurement, logistics, contracts, finance, and construction. The reader with greater project management aspirations is advised to refer to specialized texts on these subjects. We will, however, discuss the principal interfaces with engineering work and its management. 

The purpose of this chapter is to look briefly at all the components of a process plant construction project and its management, before focusing on the engineering work. 

In this section, we will review the management of the engineering work which has been planned, and enlarge on the execution of certain of the activities. It is not the intent to focus on specific engineering discipline methodologies and practice we are concerned with the adaption of the discipline performance to the requirements of the process plant project. Engineering management functions include ... 

This incident illustrates that it is not sufficient to have management controls and procedures in place to prevent uncontrolled software changes. There must also be physical or electronic barriers to prevent operators making uncontrolled changes. In this case, one would have expected that the computer that was configured to help carry out software modifications (the engineering work station ) should have been kept in secure conditions unless authorized. 

On the other hand, safety-related interloeks are equivalent to safety rules. They are there for a reason. They must not be broken. Operators, engineers, and managers should be trained to understand exactly how the controls work and why certain controls are critical. It the guidelines are wrong, unsafe or inadequate, they must be discussed thoroughly before changes are made. 

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