IFS Applications solution for project-centric businesses offers the EPCI (Engineering Procurement Construction and Installation) Contracting industries an integrated business solution for efficient handling of EPCI contracts. Following is a graphical illustration of all the processes and solutions that are available within this business solution:
The IFS Applications for Engineering Contractors solution provides you with unique support for projects, engineering, procurement, fabrication as well as financials and HR – all within the same standard system.
Integrated project management functionality is critical for contractors, and indicates that the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) guides all activities starting from tender estimation, long lead times, procurement, sub contracting, and all through to the completion on site. This ensures that plan specific and project specific plant structures (i.e., drawings, Bill Of Material) are connected together, and ensures that various changes are recorded and distributed throughout the value chain of the project. For an engineering contractor, the material demands in the project will be imported from CAD (through the AIIM client) as plant structures that include material lists. The engineering register will retrieve the structures and designs from the 3D CAD systems.
Material demand dates are managed by the planned dates set on the connected project activity, and are released for procurement, sub contracting and production accordingly.
Since it is often necessary to commence project activities before project planning and construction is completed, it is important that you handle, e.g., procurement of equipment/components even though the dates and structures are not yet known. This means that, in the solution, you have complete control of revision from Material Take Off (MTO), imported from CAD systems as they become more complete. For some industries, it is essential that equipment or components be tracked either by tagging or by its serial number. In IFS Applications, project specific material will be tracked and cost accounted according to the individual ID and project connection. The full life cycle is visible from tender, design, procurement, assembling, delivery and support. One discipline's planned material cost can, for instance, be displayed in an overall cost summary for a project.
IFS Applications provides powerful contract management capabilities to manage contracts with your customers and/or sub contractors. The contract management solutions support variation control, which is a critical issue for managing contract profitability. As project information evolves over time, everyone directly involved is constantly updated, and can follow the inevitable variations to the scope and other changes that occur over the course of a project - a crucial point given the growing tendency towards more long term contracts. For an engineering contractor, this means that in a new standard solution, commercial information will be placed on the contract rather than the project. However, it is a close relation between the contract and the executing project.
The shipment solution serves as the platform managing the delivery process to the plant/customer site. The shipment process includes handling, and delivering a shipment, including the printing of all necessary shipment documents. The shipment process enables proactive shipment planning and re-planning. The shipment process generally includes a number of activities and different stages. As a part of the shipment process activities, you can initiate a shipment, connect order lines to the shipment, pick and report, define a package structure (container), create transport labels and shipment documents, deliver and send dispatch advices.
The IFS Applications for Engineering Contractors solution will standardize and support your business processes within the following key areas:
The solution also contains interfacing tools towards CAD applications and standard integrations to planning systems. Further, it includes a web-based interface for the engineering and documentation functions, where a multi-discipline engineering register is integrated with procurement and delivery processes. This close functionality between engineering and procurement makes the IFS Applications for Engineering Contractors solution unique in the EPCI Contracting industry.
The possibility of using portals simplifies the collaboration with suppliers and sub contractors in global international projects. Portals lead to increased usability and reduced response time for the users due to the dynamic and proactive access to the right information at the right time.