Abstract
M.Ing. (Engineering Management)
This dissertation provides a study of productivity improvement to project Scope
Change Management (SCM) processes in the Engineer-Procure-Construct (EPC) project
environment using lean techniques.
The motivation for carrying out this study was, to optimise the typical scope change
management systems to improve efficiency and most importantly the process
productivity. It aims to present a conceptual approach to reduce bottom line impact
brought about by the management of scope change events.
A brief literature study of the industry, scope change management systems and the
EPC project environment is provided together with an overview on the Value Streams
(VS) mapping methodology for lean systems improvement.
The improvement study sets out to establish the current status quo of EPC project
change management systems through survey and literature study. The assessment
establishes a necessary baseline and identifies various aspects within the scope change
management system that need to be improved.
An improvement effort is made on the current state map using lean principles and
Design Structure Matrix (DSM) techniques to establish process efficiency and hence
productivity increase. The study presents the results of the lean improvement; this is
presented in the form of a process future state map proposal for further lean intervention
and implementation.
The study concludes with a brief discussion of an implementation plan.
Collectively, the study aims to provide tools for VS based improvement and
consequently meet the objective of a solution for bottom line productivity improvement in
EPC Scope Change Management systems.