Use Of Commercial Structured Databases As Innovative Solution For Feed Projects

Foster Wheeler Italiana (FWI) decided to test and evaluate the impact of an integrated project database in the workflow.With this aim, FWI developed, using the usual working procedures of Process Design, an integrated project database by means of commercial database software.Process Flow Diagrams (PFD) were used to define the database structure and the connections relevant to process data were implemented using the Process Datasheets as main references between the design parameters of unit equipment.The development activities carried out internally has shown that implementing a good database configuration it is possible to offer to Process Engineers the best documentation structure that reflects the Process Flow Diagrams topology.The data management gives the possibility to differentiate the information depending on the responsibility of the single company department, avoiding errors during the subsequent data transfer.Moreover the documents normally shared among company sections (i.e. Process Flow Diagrams for material of construction) can be kept always consistent and updated, just reducing the time lost during drafting and revisioning phases.With this approach, FWI experienced an increased quality of the documentation issued, without affecting the manhours expenditure and leading to more streamlined project management.