Efficient design of industrial plants
The results of the REMAP project on the efficient design of industrial plants have recently been made available through the PROSOMA ESPRIT service. The project was carried out within the framework of the EU's RTD programme in the field of Information Technologies (ESPRIT) and was completed on 30 April 1998. The project focused on improved plant design process through a revision management system, in order to save cost and time and increase overall quality. This was in order to address problems related to the plants which are often designed and built by a consortium of companies at different locations, frequently also of diverse nationalities. During the design process, technical drawings and documents are frequently modified and have to be adopted among the partners. This is a time-consuming process which frequently leads to errors and often results in delayed delivery of the plant. The REMAP project addressed this problem through a revision management system based on distributed databases allowing all teams to work on their individual tasks with the ability to access all relevant data concerning their project. It therefore ensures that any modifications made by one party are forwarded to all who may be affected by them and introduces concurrent engineering on a level not available in plant design at present. On the basis of pilot projects with the system it is estimated that savings of up to 30% may be made in the overall design phase.