REC Silicon: Part 2
Silane Afterstripper Upgrade
Project Details
Program and Construction Management were provided to modify Silane Plants 3 and 4 to increase production of Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) grade silane. This included new process equipment, refrigeration skids, and the civil, structural, mechanical, electrical, and I&C work.
The contractors were managed via Multiple Prime Contracts direct to REC Silicon, with daily and contract management provided by IPC. We provided daily safety professionals, overall site management, warehouse logistics, and hosted inter-contractor coordination meetings.
Project Challenges
- Aggressive schedules driven by a plant wide restart.
- Complex integration schedules between trade contractors.
- Remote location and tight labor market presented challenges to securing experienced contractors and labor.
IPC’s Solutions
- Created detailed schedules and installation trackers feeding into a master schedule for progress and forecasting.
- Detailed logistics tracking of owner purchased materials.
- Close coordination of contractor manpower and materials ensuring sufficient resources to make progress. Management of change orders.
- Daily monitoring of emergent issue and field discoveries
Owner’s Benefit
- Schedule delays were minimized by effective management of the labor and material supplies.
- Progress tracking systems allowed for timely and accurate review of change orders, reducing or eliminating significant change order costs.
- Successful project execution resulted in strong relationships between REC and local contractors for future projects.
- IPC provided daily coordination between trade contractors and owner’s engineering and quality reams, ensuring REC Senior Management time to focus on enterprise level tasks and responsibilities.
It’s difficult to cover all the problems we faced in a short narrative. A few additional items of note were:
1. The Owner had an excellent set of record documents, which we relied on heavily as we integrated the new with the existing. Kudos to REC Silicon.
2. A restart of any mechanical electrical controls process, while you are adding in new technology, has the potential for existing equipment to also need repair or upgrade. We worked daily with plant maintenance to minimize the effects of emergent repairs and replacements. This was also key to the project success.