AWP software should cover the project from FEED to system turnover. The AWP strategy, construction work areas (CWAs), a preliminary path of construction, the data requirements, and the software itself are all set during FEED, and the package method then runs unchanged until the last system is accepted. Software that only tracks construction leaves engineering, procurement, and completions to spreadsheets.
FEED and the Path of Construction
CWAs come first, then the path of construction, which is the optimal building sequence expressed as a dated sequence of construction work packages (CWPs) in the Level 3 schedule. It is agreed in weekly Interactive Planning sessions with engineering, procurement, construction, operations, and commissioning at the table. The software holds the CWAs, the CWP list, and the register of package relationships. What advanced work packaging is covers why the plan runs backward from startup.
Engineering and Procurement
Each CWP determines the scope and need dates of its engineering work package (EWP) and procurement work package (PWP), one to one. The software tracks them against those dates.
- EWPs progress as documents issued for construction over the total, with binary credit per document
- PWPs track material against the CWP's required-on-site date and complete at 100% receipt with the purchase order closed
- Vendor and fabrication packages progress on documents received and approved, and on measurable shop milestones
Material readiness covers the procurement side.
Construction and the Workface
CWPs are dissected into installation work packages (IWPs), each one foreman and crew for 7 to 10 days, released only when constraint-free. IWPs live at Level 4 in the AWP software, inside the 4 Week Look Ahead, and never in the Level 3 schedule. Workface planning covers the daily rhythm.
Testing and Completion
Testing runs through test work packages (TWPs), linked to IWPs by line number. As construction passes set progress gates, the work shifts from areas to systems. At 70% the lookahead is re-sequenced to the turnover order, and at 75 to 80% (or 90 days before the commissioning need date) the remaining work is packaged into system work packages (SWPs). Each SWP holds all remaining work for one system, with real hours, and the method stays the same to the last punch item.
How openAWP Covers the Phases
openAWP holds the phases in one set of linked tables for CWAs, CWPs, EWPs, IWPs, tags, constraints, and systems. Progress uses weighted milestones that work for engineering, procurement, fabrication, and commissioning as well as installation, and completions roll up from tags to systems.
Setting up AWP across every phase of a project? Our AWP consulting team builds the structure and the procedures.