Project Management in IFS/Asset Design

General

When it comes to the design of a new asset intensive plant or the redesign of an existing plant, a good project management tool such as IFS/Project is essential. The design or redesign of a plant is usually done as a project and can be brought about due to regulations metered out by a plant owner, contractor or consultant.

With the functionality for project management, it is now possible to integrate an equipment structure in IFS/Asset Design with projects in IFS/Project. Consequently, the continuity of the design can be determined by analyzing estimated values of the project during the feasibility phase. The profitability and performance of your design can also be maintained by analyzing actual figures reported on the project during later stages, for example, when you carry out a project analysis it is possible to identify and amend areas in your project that may affect performance.

Project Information

The project structure, also called a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS), consists of a project, sub-projects, and activities. One project can have a number of sub-projects defined for it and each sub-project will have several activities connected to it. The integration between IFS/Asset Design and IFS/Project is based on the project activity. Therefore the cost, the number of hours and the progress of a design object is updated on the relevant project activity. A graphical example for an asset design project is as follows:

In this example, SF1 is the Project and includes three levels for the sub-project. The first level of the sub-project incorporates, for example, Basic Design and Pre Studies (B1), Detail Engineering (D1) and Fabrication (F1). At the second level we have Steam Machinery (61) and the third level will have, for instance, Steam Turbines w/Condensers (611) and High Pressure Turbines (612). The activities for the 611 sub-project are Instrument Design (611-01), Electrical Design (611-02), Piping Design (611-03), Process and Mechanical Design (611-04), and Studies (611-10).

If access has been defined on the project and/or the sub-project level you need to be granted access to the relevant projects before you can work on them. For more information refer to the About Project Access description.

Functional Dependencies

The following IFS Cloud components need to be installed in order to use the solution for Project Management in IFS/Asset Design to the best benefit.

Component How these Modules are incorporated in this solution
IFS/Asset Design This component is used to enter equipment (i.e., design objects) structures for your plant. Further, the cost, hour estimates and progress spent on the design objects can be defined.
IFS/Project With the installation of this component and the connection to IFS/Asset Design, you will be able to monitor the progress of your project and track the cost, the number of hours and performance of the project.
IFS/Procurement and IFS/Financials If the connection to these components is established, actual costs and revenue can be analyzed throughout the project. This connection is established by linking to the General Ledger.

The integration between IFS/Asset Design and IFS/Project

The connection between IFS/Asset Design and IFS/Project is activated when you define a project and a project activity for the design object. As a result, planned values for your design project can be reported on the entered project. A project and related information is entered in the Project group that appears on object pages when IFS/Project is installed.

You can connect a project ID to a design object without specifying a project activity. This has been made possible because during the early stages of design, the actual project activity to be connected may not be known. Therefore, you have the option of entering the relevant project ID on the design object and connecting the project activity at a later stage. However, you need to keep in mind that the connection to IFS/Project is not established and the cost/hours and progress you enter on the design object will not be updated on the project.  

When you connect a project ID to the design object, cost related fields in Planned Hours and Costs will be displayed with a currency value. This value is the currency value of the company defined for the project.  

A project connection can be established in three different ways as detailed below,

  1. Create a manual connection from the design object to a project activity

At this instance, you need to enter a project and a project activity for the design object. The following limitations exist when creating the connection between the design object and a project;

  • If Project Access is enabled, you need to be granted access to the relevant projects and sub-project IDs.
  • The project you select needs to be in one of the following statuses: Initialized, Approved or Started.
  • The project activity needs to be in either the Planned or Released status. Furthermore, it will not be possible to connect a design object to a project activity that exists in the Planned status if the design object has a progress greater then 0 %.
  1. Establish an automatic connection between the design object and the project activity

You can define a default project and a project activity for your user ID. When you create a new design object, the default project and the project activity values appear automatically on the object. This will automatically establish the connection between the design object and a project.

It is also possible to assign a default project to your user ID without specifying a project activity. However, the connection to the project is not established and cost/hours and progress of the design object cannot be reported on the project.

  1. Create a manual connection from the project activity to the design object

Use this method to manually assign or remove the connection to the design object from IFS/Project. It will be possible to connect/disconnect all design objects if the Design Object project manual connection type is set to Allowed for the project.

Design Objects and Project Management

A design object can have several connections to different projects and project activities during its life-cycle. However only the latest project connection is considered active. Information related to the connection such as cost, hours and progress of the design object is reported on the connected project activity. You can view these values in the corresponding object pages in IFS/Asset Design. In addition, it is possible to view project information related to the design object by navigating to IFS/Project.

Preceding project connections are retained for purpose of history logs. You can view these details by viewing the Project Connection History of Project Connections for your design object. Note: The Latest Project Connection value is set as Yes for the active project connection record. Planned values cannot be changed for previous connections.

Cost/Hour Estimates for Design Objects and Project Management

In the asset design phase of your asset design project, you will create a technical design solution and enter planned cost and time estimates for the relevant design objects. Planned costs and hours on a design object can be defined against Project Cost Elements. Three project cost elements are system set to record planned material, work and miscellaneous costs and hours on the design object. Through the project cost element functionality it is possible to map user-definable project cost elements in one's company to these fields when an active project connection exists on a design object. The definition of these user-definable cost elements as well as a default project dictates that these will be the cost elements, by their defined names, for entering planned costs on design objects. If no default project has been defined, the cost elements for entering planned costs on design objects will be those cost elements mapped to the user's default company. If no default project or user default company has been defined, the cost elements take default names. You can update costs in the planned cost element fields only if the design object is connected to a project in the default company. In addition if you re-set the planned cost element field headings or modify the default planned cost element fields, the application should be restarted to get the correct names again.

It is also possible to define cost elements, in addition to the system-set ones, and to enter planned costs and hours on these cost elements. Once all the planned costs and hours on a design object are entered, the total planned cost and total planned hours of a design object can be observed as the sum of planned costs and sum of planned hours respectively, on all the cost elements associated with that particular design object.

If the functionality for project management is enabled in IFS/Asset Design, the connected project activity is automatically updated with these cost and time estimates. Thereafter, summative values of the planned cost and time estimates for your entire project can be calculated and you can determine if its feasible to continue with the design or not.

The new equipment required for your design is obtained during the basic engineering and detail engineering phases. Therefore, the actual cost of the asset design project surfaces here. Actual costs are transferred from procurement. Procurement in IFS/Asset Design is managed by purchase requisitions and is initiated on a design object. Hours are reported on project activities from the following components:

Thus, the connected project activity is updated with the actual cost and time (hour) values for the design project along with the defined progress. At this stage, you can compare the initial estimates and actual figures for the asset design project and evaluate if the ratio between the two is advantageous.

Handling Material Planning of a Design Object in Project Management

When a design object is not manually defined with planned cost/cost elements, it is possible to update it directly with the demand planned cost/cost elements. For example, once a design object is connected with a project activity, the additional parts for this design object will be listed in the ERMPL page. These parts make up the demand from the design object. The planned cost for these parts have been updated from the supplier price by default, and it will update the same at this stage.

Demand parts in ERMPL are subject to change their default cost element values, either by retrieving values from the changed supplier price, last purchase order, or manually entered values during the planning of the ERMPL. When you make a change to the planned cost of the parts or its cost elements using any of the above methods, the change can be updated back to the design object. There are fields in both the ERMPL page and the Object pages to track of these changes enabling you to have cost synchronization.

Once you are satisfied with the cost you can proceed to the procurement process which is handled by IFS/Purchasing.

Progress for Design Objects and Project Management

The progress of a design object is measured using milestone templates and milestones. These values are defined in design basic data. A milestone template can consist of one or more milestones and each milestone will have a pre-defined progress percentage value. Connect a milestone template and an appropriate milestone to your design object to establish its progress. Next progress values can be entered for the design object. If the project activity of the design object object is in the Planned status it will not be possible to report progress on the design object.

The progress of a design object can be established using one of the following methods:

  1. Manually select an existing milestone template and a milestone number for the design object.
  2. Assign a default milestone template and an initial milestone to an object class. As a result, new design objects created with this object class will automatically receive the milestone template and milestone values, and the progress of the design object is activated.
  3. You can define the progress of a design object to change when a design status action is performed. To do this, you need to select a design status value when defining a milestone in basic data, for example, choose the Set Completed status for a milestone with a cumulative progress percentage value of 100%.

Progress changes on a design object are retained for the purpose of history logs. The preceding milestone number description and the current milestone number description along with an information category of Progress Changed can be viewed in the design object's history. For example, assume you have changed the progress status of a design object from Operational Conditions Defined to Purchase Inquiry Sent. A new entry note will then be generated as, Progress Changed from Operational Conditions Defined to Purchase Enquiry Sent. 

When the connection to IFS/Project exists, the progress you define on the design object is updated on the connected project activity. It is also possible to calculate and analyze an aggregate value for the progress of the design objects belonging to your asset design project if the progress method value Connected Objects is selected. This can be viewed in the Calculated Progress field of the project activity. Progress on the project activity is calculated with the weighted average progress for the design objects. The design objects are weighted according to the hours planned for each object. The formula for the average progress is: Paverage = Sum (Pii * Hii ) / Sum(Hii ), where Pii is the design object progress, Hii is the hours planned, and the index ii denotes each design object. Design objects are weighted equally if planned hours are not defined for some of the design objects. The following example illustrates this in greater detail:

The design objects specified below are connected to the same project activity, and the design object progress method is applied for the activity:

Object ID

Cumulative Progress (P)

Planned Hours (H)
PM-311-PA-001 10% 32 hours
PM-311-PA-002 60% 16 hours
PM-311-PA-003 90% 48 hours

Sum (Pii * Hii ) à (10*32) + (60*16) + (90*48) = 5600

Sum(Hii ) à (32 + 16 + 48) = 96

Paverage = 5600/96 = 58.33%, will be displayed on the project activity in the Calculated Progress field.

Assume that one other design object exists, with a cumulative progress value of 45% and un-defined planned hours connected to the above activity. In this instance the average progress is calculated as follows:

Paverage = 58.33 * 3/4 + 45 * 1/4 = 55.00%

The effect on design objects connected with restricted projects or project activities.

A design object whose project connection has been restricted (Project or Project activity is completed, closed or cancelled) may require, at some point, for its project related information to be modified according to various project requirements. It might further need Redesigning according to plant requirements. At both these instances the effect of the project connection on project related information is shown below:

1. Modifying Project related data when the project connection is restricted (Project or Project activity is completed, closed or cancelled)

The following effects can be observed when modifying project related values such as Project ID, Sub Project ID, Activity ID, Activity Sequence, Planned Hours/Costs or Progress:

2. Setting Redesign on the design object when the project connection is restricted (Project or Project activity is completed, closed or cancelled)  

The following effects can be observed when setting redesign on the design object:

  • If the User Default Project and Activity are defined, the project connection is replaced by the User Default Project and Activity and the previous entered values are saved on a project history record. A new history record is created with the new connection.
  • If the User Default Project and Activity are not defined, the project connection is cleared on the design object and saved on a project history record. A new history record is created without a connection.

Purchase Requisitions for IFS/Asset Design and Project Management

Purchase requisition part lines are automatically connected to the project when an active project connection exists for the design object. Furthermore, these purchase requisition part lines will be pre-posted from the project. Thus enabling actual costs from the procurement process to be reported on the project.

Purchase requisition part lines will also be pre-posted with a cost center from the design object if a value for cost center exists on the object and correspondingly does not exist on the project (The part lines will retrieve the cost center value from the project if it exists on the project.)

When you use the Purchase Requisition assistant for a design object that is connected to a project, the values for site in the first step are retrieved from the union of project defined sites and user allowed sites.