Four Major Facility Expansion Projects

Reduction of engineering costs as a percentage of construction from 13% to 6%. Project savings of $53 million.

A chemical manufacturing client with whom SSOE had a 20+ year relationship, enlisted the firm for a series of projects to expand their facilities. Initial expansions involved capital investments of $50 million; subsequent expansions grew to over $2 billion in capital investment. SSOE provided front-end loading, detailed design, procurement, project controls, and start-up support for these projects that involved complex and highly proprietary chemical process expansions as well as facility additions.

Over four years and four projects, SSOE tracked the project’s engineering costs against the total installed cost. The firm’s goal was to drive cost out of the overall project, as well as to reduce the engineering costs on each subsequent project. Working together with the client, SSOE saved more than $53 million in overall costs and was able to drive down the engineering costs as a percentage of construction from 13% to 6%. One key factor in this dramatic reduction was SSOE’s ability to develop an intimacy with the client and commitment to learn the client’s process and use that knowledge to work more efficiently.