Front-End Engineering: Laying the Groundwork for Project Success

Front-End Engineering is the initial phase of a project’s engineering design process. This phase focuses on developing the technical and conceptual framework necessary to define the project’s scope, budget, schedule, and feasibility before detailed design and construction begin.

Key Characteristics of Front-End Engineering:

1. Conceptual Design: Defines the project’s overall vision, objectives, high-level requirements, and criteria for project success.
2. Technical Feasibility: Evaluates whether the project can be executed technically within the given constraints.
3. Preliminary Cost Estimates: Establishes an early approximation of project costs to support investment decisions.
4. Risk Assessment: Identifies potential risks and challenges, including safety, environmental, and operational concerns.
5. Basis for Decision-Making: Provides stakeholders with the information needed to make informed decisions about proceeding with the project.

Deliverables in the Pre-Engineering Phase:

• Project Scope Definition
  • A detailed outline of the project objectives, goals, and boundaries, identifying manufacturing requirements and constraints.
• Feasibility Study
  • Assessment of technical and financial feasibility, including cost estimates, timelines, and potential risks.
• Process flow diagrams (PFDs) and preliminary piping and instrumentation diagrams (P&IDs)
  • Process Flow Diagrams (PFDs):
    • High-level diagrams showing the major equipment, processes, and material flows within the manufacturing facility.
  • Piping and Instrumentation Diagrams (P&IDs):
    • • Detailed diagrams showing piping, instrumentation, and control systems for critical processes.
• Basic equipment specifications and layouts
  • Preliminary selection and sizing of equipment such as pumps, tanks, and conveyors, based on the process requirements.
• Site evaluation and logistics planning
  • Preliminary layouts of the manufacturing facility, showing key equipment, utilities, access routes, and safety zones.
• Utility Requirements
  • Estimation of the utility requirements (e.g., water, electricity, compressed air, steam) for the manufacturing processes.
• Preliminary materials selection and energy analysis
  • Calculations that account for material inputs, outputs, and energy consumption throughout the manufacturing processes.
• Initial safety and environmental studies
  • Initial safety analyses and identification of regulatory requirements, such as OSHA or environmental considerations.
• Capital and Operating Cost Estimates
  • Early estimates of capital expenditures (CapEx) and operating expenses (OpEx) to evaluate the financial viability of the project.
• Project Schedule and Phasing Plan
  • A timeline for project implementation, including design, procurement, construction, and commissioning phases.
  • These deliverables help manufacturing clients make informed decisions about moving forward with the project and provide a solid foundation for detailed engineering and design.

This phase is crucial for minimizing risks, managing costs, and ensuring the project’s alignment with its strategic goals.

Project Experience:

Confidential Chemical Client

• With plans to add two new reverse osmosis (RO) skids to their existing RO building, this client requested front-end engineering assistance from The JDI Group to provide the scope of services. Our team provided a 3D laser scan of the existing RO building and obtained an updated quotation for the new RO skids, which needed to match the four existing skids as much as possible. We verified the sizing of the existing multimedia filters, pumps, CIP skid, tanks, and power sources to verify they had adequate sizing to add 50% more capacity. JDI then created a 3D model showing the new equipment, as well as developed a new plot plan.
• Our architectural and structural teams reviewed the feasibility and impact of relocating the existing man door and/or creating a bump out to the building. We updated the existing P&IDs and PDFs for adding a fifth and sixth RO skid. Finally, our team provided a quotation for the detailed design of the new RO skids install, including piping fabrication drawings and electrical one lines.

Confidential Manufacturing Client

• This client was planning a front-end engineering project to support their goal of installing new infrastructure for the storage, offloading, and transmission of a new chemical component for their process. Our engineers worked with the client to develop the full scope of the project. The final scope included 3D scanning of the project site, design of new 600,000 lbs. storage tanks, pump selection, equipment list, and general layout, foundation design and soil remediation, electrical heat trace design and one-line diagrams, and instrument specification and development of project I/O list.
• JDI also provided assistance with a number of studies to determine the capacity of the supporting systems available at the project site. The evaluations performed included a lighting study, hot water delivery and heating capacity, existing offload pumping capacity, load analysis of existing structures, high-level construction estimates for comparison of multiple solutions, and an assessment of the electrical distribution system.

Confidential Manufacturing Client

• The JDI Group provided a Level 1 and Level 2 site and utility due diligence study on a parcel of land. Our client plans to build a 400,000 SF supply warehouse on the site with a rail spur, parking areas, and roadways.
• The Level 1 study was intended to identify any major technical project risks at an early stage that would be difficult or expensive to resolve and could make the project infeasible.
• The Level 2 study was intended to provide feasibility-grade costs and documentation for the site and utility portions of the overall project. JDI partnered with a consultant firm to perform the geotechnical records research and soil exploration portions of the project.

Confidential Refining Client

• As part of the programming phase for the maintenance shop complex, similar shops at two other refineries were reviewed to maximize potential work efficiencies and workflow best practices at this site. JDI assessed and documented hundreds of pieces of existing machinery and equipment that were to be moved to the new facility to ensure that the workflow in the new shop met the client’s needs and that all utilities were provided.
• The JDI Group utilized a multi-disciplined team, with the whole design being completed in-house while collaborating with the owner’s team. We provided pre-design services, including site analysis and assistance in site selection, existing shop assessments, workflow studies, and programming; as well as conceptual and schematic design through construction documentation for the 90,000 SF new facility.