ENGINEERING DESIGN PROJECT

Engineering Design Project



Engineering Design Project

Consideration of costing

In order to provide the most efficient and cost-effective solution, it is essential that design considerations relating to ventilation are considered at the earliest stage. The costs of a constructed facility according to the client specifications to the owner include both the initial capital cost and the subsequent operation and maintenance costs. Each of these major cost categories consists of a number of cost components. Accurately toleranced dimensioned features usually take much more time to manufacture correctly and therefore can increase production costs significantly. Good engineering practise finds the optimum balance between required accuracy for the function of the component and minimum cost of manufacture. (Pugh, 1991 p.181-186)

The capital cost for a Engineering design of McKenzie Martin Ltd includes the expenses related to the inital establishment of the facility:

Planning and feasibility studies

Architectural and engineering design

Construction, including materials, equipment and labor

Field supervision of construction

Inspection and testing

The operation and maintenance cost in subsequent years over the project life cycle includes the following expenses:

Operating staff Labor and material for maintenance and repairs

Periodic renovations

Insurance and taxes

Financing costs

Utilities

other expenses

The magnitude of each of these cost components depends on the nature, size and location of the project as well as the management organization, among many considerations. McKenzie Martin Ltd is interested in achieving the lowest possible overall project cost that is consistent with its investment objectives. It is important for design professionals and engineering managers to realize that while the construction cost may be the single largest component of the capital cost, other cost components are not insignificant. For example, land acquisition costs are a major expenditure for ventilation construction in high-density urban areas, and financing costs can reach the same order of magnitude as the cost in this project . (Norman, 2002 p. 155-158)

From the company's perspective, it is equally important to estimate the corresponding operation and maintenance cost of each alternative for a proposed facility in order to analyze the life cycle costs.

Ventilated walls are a complex structural solution developed in accordance with industrial design criteria: every detail must be examined and defined in advance to avoid the need for substantial modifications and/or improvisations during the implementation stages. The actual dimensions of the slab are added to those of the joints to develop a possible covering layout entirely composed of whole slabs. When dealing with facade components like openings, string courses or other non-modular elements, often found in renovations, the number of slab cuts can be reduced in order to correctly handle the different sizes and to limit costs.

In most construction budgets, there is an allowance for contingencies or unexpected costs occuring during construction. This contingency amount may be included within each cost item or be included in a single category of construction contingency. The amount of contingency is based on historical experience and the expected difficulty of a particular construction project. For example, one construction firm makes estimates of the expected cost in five different areas: (Cross, 2008 ...