Assessing the maturity and accuracy of front end engineering design (FEED) for large, complex industrial projects

Planning efforts conducted during the early stages of a construction project, known as front end planning (FEP), have a large impact on project success and significant influence on the configuration of the final project. As a key component of FEP, front end engineering design (FEED) plays an essential role in the overall success of large industrial projects. The primary objective of this dissertation focuses on FEED maturity and accuracy and its impact on project performance. The author was a member of the Construction Industry Institute (CII) Research Team (RT) 331, which was tasked to develop the FEED Maturity and Accuracy Total Rating System (FEED MATRS), pronounced “feed matters.” This dissertation provides the motivation, methodology, data analysis, research findings (which include significant correlations between the maturity and accuracy of FEED and project performance), applicability and contributions to academia and industry. A scientific research methodology was employed in this dissertation that included a literature review, focus groups, an industry survey, data collection workshops, in-progress projects testing, and statistical analysis of project performance. The results presented in this dissertation are based on input from 128 experts in 57 organizations and a data sample of 33 completed and 11 on-going large industrial projects representing over $13.9 billion of total installed cost. The contributions of this work include: (1) developing a tested FEED definition for the large industrial projects sector, (2) determining the industry’s state of practice for measuring FEED deliverables, (3) developing an objective and scalable two-dimensional method to measure FEED maturity and accuracy, and (4) quantifying that projects with high FEED maturity and accuracy outperformed projects with low FEED maturity and accuracy by 24 percent in terms of cost growth, in relation to the approved budget.