Large-scale fabrication capital projects, for new steel industrial facilities are major undertakings. They require long lead times, multiple stakeholders, and a variety of complex processes that must come together in sequence or simultaneously.
In the end, however, the
primary goal is the same as for any project: to build a quality end-product on
time, safely, and within budget.
With so much at stake in these megaprojects that are often in
remote locations and logistically challenging, careful planning is essential.
What does it take to prevent delays, incidents, and costly overruns?
Better yet, how can you strategically plan to fabricate your industrial steel fabrication project more efficiently with a lower total installed cost?
Off-site Modularization
Off-site modular fabrication, or modularization, is one strategy to reduce the total installed cost of your steel fabrication project. Modular fabrication for industrial facilities refers to the process of building large components of equipment and facility structures off-site in sections or modules for final assembly and/or installation on-site.
Through off-site modularization, total installed costs can be reduced by the following:
- reduced rental costs – such as for cranes, site support equipment, worker facilities
- reduced staging costs
- off-site modularization ensures that project timelines don’t get delayed, incurring further costs
Even if an industrial fabrication project is already underway, it can benefit from modularization and still have some components built off-site.
Existing design drawings and plans can be reviewed to find options for improving the build process and schedule through off-site fabrication and pre-assembly.
Early Contractor Involvement
It’s not unusual for large-scale construction projects to experience schedule delays and/or cost overruns. But why?
While increased project costs might be attributed to on-site conditions or unexpected requirements, the true causes are often due to poor communications between the parties involved.
And the larger the project, the more ineffective communication becomes a factor in added time and costs.
In the design/build industries, good communication is often
a challenge among the owner/customer, engineer/designer, and
fabricator/contractor.
Large and complex industrial projects need a more dynamic
communications process – with all stakeholders contributing throughout the
project, called Early Contractor Involvement (ECI).
Effective communication takes advantage of those different
perspectives and experiences of all parties involved to plan a more integrated
strategy. ECI essentially leverages this idea of effective communication and
collaboration to improve a project’s design and management.
It is through this early
communication and collaboration that total installed costs can be reduced by
strategically planning from the beginning in a way that is cost-effective, and
avoiding costly errors and re-work.
Setting a challenge to collectively find the most efficient
strategies – to save time, risks and costs – can help everyone work towards
successful outcomes.
Each partner can offer a wealth of insights from past
projects, as well as ideas for innovative approaches to achieve the shared goal
of reducing total installed costs.
By leveraging both off-site modularization and ECI as dual strategy approaches, the total installed cost of your steel fabrication project can be controlled, and thus reduced.
At Saskarc, we
believe in a thorough discovery process to gather information. To that end,
open communications early in a project’s development lets us ask the right
questions and offer our perspective and expertise as an experienced fabricator
of industrial modular components.
We understand how our involvement in the beginning stages of
a large-scale capital project contributes to better collaboration,
cost-savings, and overall success.
Saskarc can begin working with project owners early, to help
assess the use of modularization strategies within the scope of large projects.
When given an opportunity to examine feasibility from the start, our expert
evaluations often uncover substantial savings to improve the
return-on-investment for our customers.
Saskarc has nearly 30 years of experience providing superior steel fabrication solutions achieved by combining project analysis, stakeholder communications and design innovation for modularization. See what our customers have to say about working with us and contact us today to learn more about how we can make your fabrication project a success by utilizing modularization.