Introduction

Before the start of a capital project the investor and the owner/operator want to define the list of documents to be delivered by the EPC to control the completeness of package deliverables. Approved documents represent the fulfillment of package milestones in a capital project. Document planning in an engineering capital project gives you the ability to control the completeness and due dates of all document deliverables, regardless of whether you have the obligation to send documents out or expect to receive inbound documents from suppliers.

A prerequisite to controlling the completeness of documents to be delivered by the EPC as part of an engineering capital project is the planning of document deliverables in a Master Document List (MDL). EDM Systems provide the functionality to generate Master Document Lists (aka. Master Document Repository). That gives you the ability to keep your project deliverables on time, in scope, and at the highest quality.

Master Document List

A Master Document List (MDL), aka Master Document Register, is a complete list of documents including their metadata to be delivered as part of an engineering capital project.

Engineering Document Management systems ensure that all line items in the MDL exist at least as one file in the Master Document Repository which represents the location of all approved and to-be-approved controlled documents in a capital project. The Master Document Repository is the source from where WIP copies are signed out to the project workspace. The Master Document Repository controls Document Numbering, Revisions, Renditions, Categories, etc. (see my previous article about Engineering Document Management). But it also allows the download of all line items to an offline MDL as well as the upload of updated offline MDL into the Master Document Repository.

 My previous article in this series about EDM in Capital Projects gave a general introduction.  In this article, I am going to explain the Master Document List (MDL) and the Master Document Repository (MDR) in more detail.

Definitions

The MDL is the complete list of documents to be delivered across all disciplines throughout all phases of a capital project or a subset of it for a particular supplier, contractor, or sub-project. For each of these document deliverables, the MDL holds metadata (attributes) such as document number, DCC code, discipline, document type, unit code, system code, etc. This metadata can also come from the owner/operator, contractor, vendor, or supplier. In addition to that, the MDL holds the information for review and approval in a RACI-like matrix.

As a result, the MDR is a huge spreadsheet with thousands of line items and many columns.

MDL Exchange Process

The MDL is subject to permanent change throughout a capital project. In the early phases of a project, the MDL is taken from a template or a similar project which was executed in the past. It is then adjusted to the purpose of the capital project and the objects to be built.

During this phase, the MDL (or parts of it) is subject to negotiation between the EPC (Engineering, Procurement, and Construction main contractor), the owner/operator, and any supplier or vendor. The owner/operator may need to have additional special purpose certificates or SOPs, the vendor may not feel responsible for some of the documents on the list and the EPC may require additional metadata.

All that is managed with the MDL. Ideally, the MDL process should be provided as an online application with access to all parties involved to those parts of the MDL they are responsible for.

Once the MDL is signed by the parties, it becomes part of the contract. At this point in time, the MDL becomes the list of contractually agreed document deliverables.

Document planned and forecast dates

The document delivery date can be planned for each revision status (IFD, AFC, IFC, As built, etc.) and every revision status can have planned dates for each process state (Start draft, reviewed, approved, etc.). Over the course of the project, it becomes clearer if planned dates can be achieved and which dates would be more realistic. Forecast dates reflect delays in the delivery and in the review process of documents and must be updated on a regular basis. In case the overall project plan must be adjusted all document delivery dates must be revised (aka re-baselining). All three planning activities are bulk operations that can be performed by the MDL process to avoid setting the date values for every single document.

Evident to say that a contemporary EDM System should provide an interface to common planning tools like Primavera or MS Projects.

In many engineering projects, document planning doesn´t occur on the document level but on the task or work package level as derived from the project management tool. All documents that are associated with a particular task or package inherit the planned date from that task or package. The forecast dates for the planned documents are automatically calculated from the turnaround dates of the applied state flow. Only the actual dates are tracked by the EDM System upon occurrence.

MDL Offline Processing

If the list of document deliverables cannot be shared on an online application the Engineering Document Management System must allow exporting the MDL from the Master Document Repository to a spreadsheet for offline use. Of course, it shall also allow the import of adjusted offline MDLs back into the Master Document Repository.

Summary

As a result, managing the MDL in an engineering capital project gives you the ability to control the completeness and due dates of all document deliverables, regardless of whether you have the obligation to send documents out or expect to receive inbound documents from suppliers. With the MDL you can keep your project on time, in scope, and at the highest quality.

Author: Jens Friehmelt is a Senior Manager in OpenText Professional Services EMEA leading an international team that combines multiple OpenText technologies to serve customers with best-practice solutions for Engineering, Construction, Operation, and Maintenance processes.

Reference: Read similar content on OpenText Bogs https://blogs.opentext.com/understanding-the-master-document-register-within-an-engineering-capital-project/

#EngineeringDocumentManagement #CapitalProjects #DocumentControl #DocumentController #opentext #ecm #extendedecm #AsBuilt #MoC #ManagementOfChange #AssetManagement #ProcessIndustry #OperationAndMaintenance #O&M #AssetLifecycleInformation #AssetLifecycleDocumentation #AssetDocumentManagement