Handling scope change needs a dedicated person with few resources to reduce delays in the EPC project
Scope change keeps happening while the EPC contractor executes the project. The reasons could be requirements were not anticipated earlier by customers at the time of giving contracts or that customers themselves are finding a need for change in specific design requirements as more studies happen at their end.
Usually, EPC owners feel that keeping a contract manager full-time is a waste of money as they will be without work 70-80% time. So, they give this responsibility to the marketing manager, who has the primary responsibility to quote new tenders. The marketing manager approaches the engineering teams to provide them with technical inputs for the changed scope. The engineering teams consider this work as secondary as contributions to the ongoing project are their primary responsibility. In short, this combination of marketing plus engineering always leads to delays in submitting their proposals for changed scope. Usually, for expensive changed scope items, the delay in getting agreement on technical & commercial aspects can extend to 6 -8 months also.