Engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) is changing every day. From new EPC software to the demands of an ever-changing global market, your EPC company needs an edge. The right EPC technologies can help you to stand out in a crowded market, and to win new clients.
A recent whitepaper from Fact Market Research found that
“The EPC market is highly fragmented with the presence of numerous market players. Despite the extreme competition, market players are expected to enjoy significant growth opportunities over the forecast period (2022-2032) with the adoption of various organic and inorganic strategies.”
Here are a few ways that EPC technology can help your company compete.
Enhanced communication
The right EPC project management software can help your team to communicate more quickly and effectively. Harnessing the power of cloud technology, EPC companies can centralize all paperwork, data, and information in one software solution. Once there, the software can provide tools that allow stakeholders to stay on the same page. These solutions may include
- Progress monitoring dashboards
- Document annotation systems
- Remote-access document and data storage
As we have discussed in our blog, “With geographically dispersed teams, centralizing all this data is crucial. Whether it’s original CAD designs, as-designed BIM models, build changes, maintenance records, or operational KPIs, teams can no longer afford to have information strewn about on various hard drives and paper files. Instead, collaboration should be seamless – someone needs to bring point clouds, BIM models, designs, and pertinent information into one, centralized source.”
With cloud storage in a centralized EPC software solution like the JP Interactive Viewer, your team can take advantage of a single source of truth for the entire project. If an engineer needs to make a change, the procurement team can quickly adjust.
Streamlined workflows
Speaking of those adjustments, EPC technologies exist that can help streamline the workflow. In many cases, workflow automation can be employed to make sure that procurement knows of the changes proposed by engineering, and changes can be easily plugged into the project controls.
Some EPC and construction management software can help EPC companies to predict supply chain issues or other factors that will impact the project costs.
Managed resources
The most accurate point clouds are useless if your team can’t access them when they need them. And similarly, managing your physical and human assets is an essential component of keeping your project running smoothly.
EPC companies can lean on technology to help with this process. As we’ve explored before in our blog, there are a number of very useful EPC project management software options that can manage tasks like:
- Cost management
- Change management
- Progress measurement
- Enterprise analytics
- Project reporting
- Safety tracking
- Time tracking
- Staffing
- Task assignments
- Materials allocations
And more.
Maximized Quality Assurance
If your EPC company is contracted to perform construction quality management (CQM), imagine being able to perform some of your quality assurance and quality control remotely. With point cloud, laser scanning, and 3D modeling, coupled with a world-class viewer like our JP Interactive Viewer, EPC services can perform these systemic checks from anywhere.
ProjectManagement.com reminds us that CQM must address
- “Mandatory statutory quality requirements that are imposed by legislation and enforced by regulatory third-party authorities in the region where the EPCM project is to be constructed in specific application areas, such as nuclear, power generation, tunnels, airports, and so forth”
- “Customer quality requirements that are contained in the conditions of the contract and that specify the technical quality requirements generally defined in project specifications”
- “Specific requirements of the performing organization, which generally satisfy its commercial needs (optimize profit, return on investment, increasing reputation in the marketplace, and so forth).”
EPC technologies will allow you to monitor project progress at every stage from designing to building, without spending weeks surveying and rendering.
Surfing the Internet of Things
The expanding use of Internet of Things (IoT) devices is helping transform EPC work. PwC says that 5G communication may allow IoT devices to help collate and process data.
“The ask from the EPC industry is also evolving with customer requirements going beyond the construction and installation of equipment. Machine-to-machine (M2M) data collected through multiple IoT sensors and aided by the low latency of 5G can provide proactive quality maintenance. This could be a critical after-sales success facilitator. The continuous monitoring of heavy machinery in the EPC industry would enable predictive maintenance that will aid in strategizing the workforce, avoiding system breakdowns or malfunctions, and improving workers’ safety.”
Tracked KPIs
Every EPC company should be tracking its key performance indicators (KPIs). Engineering News Report tells us that “EPC contractors need to track a more comprehensive list of KPIs than traditional construction contractors.”
Among the KPIs that Engineering News Report suggests EPC companies track include
- Project win rate
- Financial performance compared with projections
- Costs
- Revenues
- Margins
- On-time delivery
- Sub-contractor performance
- Quality of work
- Sustainability
- Health and safety
- Asset and equipment performance
Of course this level of data tracking would be impossible without EPC technologies that help to collect, analyze, and report on these KPIs.
If your EPC company can stay in front of the changing technologies, you can stay ahead of the competition. Utilizing a range of technologies, from EPC project management software to internet of things (IoT) sensors and BIM methodologies, to point cloud technology, reality capture, and cloud data storage, EPC companies can demonstrate to their potential clients that they are prepared for the future.
