Corporate
Our dedicated and certified Cost Consultants, combined with our deep industry knowledge, allow us to provide the support you need through the full project lifecycle, from the initial estimating phase towards cost management, project completion and benchmarking. This enables you to improve your project performance, maximize capital investments and stay ahead of the competition. Cost estimating is an essential foundation to project management, which leads to effective planning and project control. While project managers often lack the deep estimating expertise, our dedicated Cost Estimators understand the complex variables which determine the cost, such as materials, equipment, labor rates, productivity and create objective and accurate estimates, resulting in improved project controls. Our Cost Controllers know the dynamics of projects. With many years of experience and through proven methods and techniques, we ensure thorough change management, we recognize trends and accurately forecast the development of planning and costs. This way you keep a grip on your project. Recognizing risks and taking action on them is the key to successfully managing each project. Our Risk Managers have extensive experience in various projects and know how to identify risks, qualitatively assess and quantify them. This way you will acknowledge the threats at an early stage and will no longer be faced with surprises. The capabilities of our Planning Engineers help you get a strategic oversight of your project by adding the factor “time” to your project cost, activities, resources, and revenues. We can determine and develop a timescale for your project and ensure that the outlined deadlines are met. Our Tendering Engineers contribute effectively to ordering intake and managing the tender process. We support you from the receipt of the invitation to the submittal of the offer. This way you will ensure that the bids are submitted on time in accordance with your requirements. Our all-round and certified Cost Consultants ensure the high quality of our services. All our Cost Consultants have engineering backgrounds in one or more disciplines. They are also AACE / ICEC certified cost engineers. They have followed the post-bachelor degree organized by the DACE (Dutch Associations of Cost Engineers) and our internal education at Cost Engineering Academy. With more than 20 years of experience in project cost management, Cost Engineering takes a holistic approach to your complex and technical project management needs. We support our Cost Consultants with our own project cost management software Cleopatra Enterprise, we train them in our own training institute Cost Engineering Academy, and we provide them the right data to work with, our own knowledgebase CESK Data. Over the years, Cost Engineering have worked for all kinds of organizations from industrial multinationals to government departments and from construction companies to engineering firms. Our challenge is to make sure that every project is finished according to the high standards of our clients, whatever the size and the kind of the organization. Do you have questions about the services of our professionals or do you want to know more? Then contact us.Project Cost Management Professionals
Cost Engineering has the right people with the right capabilities wherever you need them, whatever the size of your organization.
Cost Estimators
Cost Controllers
Risk Managers
Planning Engineers
Tendering Engineers
Join companies where our professionals deliver accurate and fast results.
Knowledge
Expertise
Diversity
Meet our Project Cost Management Professionals
Estimating the surface area of a room or the number of marbles in a jar is relatively easy and can be done quite accurately with simple rules of thumb. However, estimating the total costs of an offshore LNG platform or a high speed railroad is a little more complex. Luckily, there are numerous methods and techniques that can help you estimate those costs throughout the different phases of such projects. In the first phases, you can make use of several factor estimating techniques that allow for an estimate with limited accuracy but enough confidence for a go / no go decision. The factor estimating method derives its name from applying derivative factors for the preparation of the investment estimate of a project. The method is sometimes called a top-down estimate and is based on limited project scope. It uses rules of thumb, parametric models or historical databases to provide relevant cost data. It can be used to develop for example cost per square foot for a building or cost for a similar piece of equipment. Factor estimating is used because of several reasons, amongst which: Advantages: Disadvantages: Parametric estimating entails the analysis of cost, programmatic and technical data to identify cost drivers and develop cost models. The approach essentially correlates cost and manpower information with parameters describing the item to be costed. This process results in sets of formulae known as “Cost Estimation Relationships” (CERS), which are applied to produce cost outputs for different elements of an estimate. Parametric Method generally involves the use of a regression analysis (linear and nonlinear) to determine the best algorithms for a model. An equipment factored estimate is produced by taking the cost of individual types of process equipment, and multiplying it by an "installation factor" to arrive at the total costs. In practice, this has proven to be quite a useful method since a substantial part of total project costs are made up of equipment. As a result, it’s the basis for many factor estimating methods. The installation factor, or total installed cost (TIC) factor, includes subcontracted costs, associated direct labor costs and materials needed for installation of equipment. A method that is slightly more detailed and therefore needs some more project information, is the so-called Lang method. Its basis is the equipment prices free at site, of which it’s best to have quotations. The method differentiates for solids, liquids and mixed solids/liquids. In short, the picture below explains how the method works. This method, developed by W.E. Hand, is an extension of the Lang method and proposes to use different factors for each type of equipment (columns, vessels, heat exchangers and other units) rather than per process type. Hand’s factors exclude indirect field costs (IFC), home office costs (HOC), and the costs for OSBL facilities, all of which must be estimated separately. Sometimes called bottom-up estimating. With this method, detailed estimates are made at relatively low levels in the work breakdown structure (WBS), typically at work-package or task level. This approach is closely related to scheduling, planning and resource allocation and is both time-consuming and costly. It requires a good knowledge of the activity and there also needs to be a reasonable level of definition for the exercise to be meaningful. Not really an estimating technique but rather a method strictly used for estimating direct labor in man-hours. The direct man-hours of Page & Nations were determined by gathering hundreds of time and method studies coupled with actual cost of various operations, both in the shop and field on many piping jobs located on projects in the US. Ranging in cost from $ 50,000 to $ 20,000,000. By carefully analyzing these many reports, an average productivity rate of 70% is established. The man-hours or percentages compiled throughout this manual are based on this percentage. There are many other methods that you might use to develop estimates, but it’s those mentioned above of which its use is most wide-spread. Cost Engineering has experts for all of these methods, and can apply them within your organization for a wide range of projects. Interested in what methods are best suited for your specific situation? Contact us at contact@costengineering.euProject Estimation Techniques
Estimating methods & Techniques
Factor Estimating
Advantages and disadvantages factor estimating
Parametric estimating
Equipment factored estimating
Lang method
Hand method
Detailed estimating
Page & Nations
Cost Engineering
Today’s complex projects call for an integrated and structured work process to ensure they are completed within time and budget. Most recognize that a better integration of cost estimating, scheduling, risk analysis, cost control and benchmarking is needed to achieve this. Reality is often different. In June 2016, Eos Group and Cost Engineering Consultancy will be traveling the US and Canada to meet with several different companies to talk about our passion, Total Cost Management. Cleopatra Enterprise is the first tool that is built around the AACE International TCM Framework®, the globally recognized body of knowledge for Total Cost Management. We will be showcasing Cleopatra Enterprise, and how it enables companies to implement Total Cost Management best practices through an integrated project controls solution. Would you like to meet with us? Please use the form below or send an email directly to schedule our visit and we will send you more detailed information. The number of companies we can visit is limited so please respond as soon as possible. We look forward to meeting with you and share some of our passion! Although the agenda can be tailored to your fields of interest, the following topics can be discussed: √ Only tool to offer true cost estimating and cost control functionality Cost Engineering Consultancy (CEC) is based in the Netherlands and provides professional cost engineering services and software to owners and (EPC) contractors worldwide. Eos Group is our partner for the North American market. Both CEC and Eos Group have 20+ years of experience in supporting companies in their cost estimating and project controls activities, through professional services as well as software solutions.How Technology Enables Total Cost Management
Roadshow North America
Agenda
Why Cleopatra Enterprise?
√ Adaptable to your organization, yet easy-to-use
√ Advanced project analytics for better insight into project performance
√ Industry standard cost data available
√ Supported by experienced and certified cost engineersContact
Oil and gas is one of the areas that has been part of the Cost Engineering company since it was founded. Over the years Cost Engineering has been very active in the onshore field for clients all over the world. The projects that Cost Engineering has been involved in for these customers range from green field to maintenance projects. Cost Engineering has not only served its Oil & Gas clients in estimating, but also in areas like planning, cost control, contracting, quantity surveying, auditing, validation, asset verification, cost management, claim mediation, contract control and risk analysis. This makes Cost Engineering the default choice for many of our clients. Cost Engineering propagates a full life-cycle approach to cost estimating just as to all other parts of our client’s projects. The main reason being, that a full life-cycle approach will make sure a project will not just be a success in one of its phases, but over its complete lifetime. We thereby take into account the often longer than average time-span of Oil & Gas projects and ensure every strategic decision is made with all relevant data available, accurate and up-to-date. Cost Engineering did a long term project with a group of Central and Eastern European companies who were in the process of revising a large part of their production facilities throughout Europe. For this combination of companies, Cost Engineering has audited all feed estimates and their related processes. This was not just a case of looking at the results on paper. It meant going out into the field to get a feel for the situation and applying that knowledge on information received from both owners as well as engineering contractors. During this project, Cost Engineering audited over a billion Euro’s worth of projects both from an estimating as well as a planning point of view. As a final result the group of companies has a much clearer view of the cost involved in the project, resulting in reduced cost where possible. Cost Engineering has assisted an engineering firm in the process of calculating the cost of a number of projects they are conducting for their clients. By using Cost Engineering as an independent third party, there have been no discussions about the estimates and negotiations can be focused on the technical aspects of the projects. For Statoil, we delivered several services, amongst which we estimated the costs of multiple Greenfield projects as well as integrated with existing plant projects for different locations in Europe. Those different types of cost estimates followed their project phases: accuracy from 40% to 20%. With a probability of P80. Cost Engineering used its own database and reported on the NORSOK coding structure. Part of this was the evaluation of different scenarios before the transition to the following phase. Visit www.costengineering.eu or contact us to find out how to benefit from our products & services.Onshore Oil & Gas
From greenfield to maintenance projects
Our services
Full life-cycle
Long term project in Central & Eastern Europe
Acting as independent third party
Statoil's greenfield projects
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Cost Engineering is experienced in working for the offshore industry. As an industry which faces a very broad range of cost risks, the offshore industry benefits greatly from a thorough approach to its cost engineering. In the offshore industry, the location has a major impact on the total project costs. For that reason, Cost Engineering establishes the project’s standard conditions (e.g. location, productivity, rates, etc.) and applies custom factors where needed to not only ensure high estimate accuracy, but also the ability to trace back sources of costs. Cost Engineering realizes that offshore oil & gas projects often face significant investment risks. Therefore, a Capex uncertainty analysis will be executed for the appropriate phases. This analysis will be executed with a Risk Software Program @Risk based on the Monte Carlo simulation to determine the contingency to derive the cost estimate confidence level. This risk assessment will be based on the identified project risks. One of the projects Cost Engineering has worked on was a conceptual design and layout for a well-head and production platform which was defined from a zero base level. It was meant for a field approximately 12 km off shore which contains 36 API degree oil and associated gas. The export route is through an existing offshore complex located to the north-west of the platform. Because of the requirements for downhole ESPs, dry trees have been selected for all production wells in this field to facilitate access and work over. The water depth at the field is 20 meters (LAT). The designs in this project are for one well-head and one bridge linked production platform. Due to drilling constraints the well-head platform is required in 2010 and the production platform is to achieve first oil in 2011. For this project Cost Engineering was asked to: Other estimating projects we delivered to offshore clients include the development of cost estimate data (FPSO, Pipeline, Subsurface) for Inpex and long-term offshore cost estimating support for NAM/Shell. A number of clients use Cost Engineering to monitor and index their contract rates on a yearly basis. Others ask Cost Engineering to supply knowledge to their organization. In the recent past that has meant that we supplied three cost control specialists to an international organization. In another example Cost Engineering provided a certified cost engineer to the daily maintenance organization for a refinery. During our presence new contracts were initiated, work processes streamlined and cost were reduced by introducing new ways for working with cost engineering tools. Visit www.costengineering.eu or contact us to find out how to benefit from our products & services.Offshore Oil & Gas
A broad range of cost risks
High estimate accuracy
Risk assessment
Well-head and production platform
Cost Estimate Data
Certified Specialists
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As Cost Engineering, we know from experience that projects in the Chemical industry are never standard. We have come across the complexity of such projects and the challenges that come along with it, which resulted in in-depth industry knowledge as well as intensive collaboration with well-known parties. An example is Honeywell; our software Cleopatra is in fact integrated with their UniSim tool. Our cost estimating services always result in a formal report. The contents of the report will be defined in the cost estimating plan. The report will cover the underlying project strategy, contingency descriptions, escalation and the project costs shown in a pre-agreed format. This to ensure our services are in line with all requirements of the high-demanding projects that are rule rather than exception in the Chemical industry. For Wacker, one of the largest chemical companies in Germany, Cost Engineering has built a complete custom made knowledgebase for all of their estimating work. They use this database within our software Cleopatra Enterprise to increase efficiency of their estimating processes. Visit www.costengineering.eu or contact us to find out how to benefit from our products & services.Chemical
Collaboration with parties such as Honeywell
Cost estimating for high-demanding projects
Custom knowledgebase for Wacker
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We do realize the mining industry has quite specific needs when it comes to cost estimating and project control due to the nature and locations of its projects. It’s not something everyone with just some cost engineering expertise can do. Fortunately, Cost Engineering has the knowledge and experience to understand the challenges of projects in the mining industry and can help create an efficient and accurate estimate of your next endeavour. It’s no exception that mining projects often face significant investment risks and that its profitability not only depends on the initial investment but also the operational costs and (expected) market price of the commodity. Therefore, an uncertainty analysis will be executed. This analysis will be executed with a Risk Software Program @Risk based on the Monte Carlo simulation to determine the contingency to derive the cost estimate confidence level. Opex and commodity price fluctuations can be taken into account in consultation with your own experts to ensure a well-informed and accurate investment decision. Planning is vital for the success of your projects. Each day a project gets behind schedule results in lost revenues. A good planner keeps an eye on progress, scope changes, as well as all outside factors which could influence the planning. Cost Engineering understands the importance of these influences and can assist you in developing a realistic planning for your projects. This ensures a tight integration between time, resources, and costs. Sherritt Metal is the largest coal producer in Canada and the largest independent energy producer in Cuba with extensive oil and power operations across the island. It also provides metallurgical services worldwide and is an industry leader in the mining and refining of nickel and cobalt from lateritic ore. For all of its estimating jobs, they make use of the software and services of Cost Engineering. According to its principal estimating manager, “Cost Engineering is quite unique in their combination of cost estimating software and certified and experienced cost engineers who are familiar with our everyday work.” Visit www.costengineering.eu or contact us to find out how to benefit from our products & services.Mining
Efficient and accurate estimates for mining endeavours
Risk analysis
Realistic planning for your projects
Sherritt Metal
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Over the past years Cost Engineering has been involved in many projects in one of the most crucial industries for our society. After all, this is the industry of which price changes always make the news. For that reason it is a necessity to obtain the best ratio between cost and quality. In the past, Cost Engineering has worked on projects for combined cycle power plants. The time that elapses between accepting a bid and the final construction is one of the major issues we have found in these projects. It is quite common to find a gap of two years between these two stages. However, if this gap is not taken into account when preparing the estimates, there can be a significant difference between the calculated cost and the as-built cost. Having knowledge like this makes Cost Engineering the ideal partner when it comes to estimating and managing costs of your project in the energy industry. Another factor which greatly influences this difference is the fact that accepting the bid does not cover all the cost involved in obtaining a working combined cycle power plant. Depending on the project this can be as little as 75% of the total cost involved in the plant. The best way to face this problem is to carefully draw up functional specifications for all the additional tasks that are needed during the project and then including them in the estimates. Cost Engineering has done this for power plants ranging from 400 million Euros to plants worth well over a billion Euros. Cost Engineering has been active on the side of both buyer as well as EPC contractor. Through series of projects it has become clear that the biggest gains are in the difference between the first estimates and the execution stage. Careful analysis of current and previous projects and the market knowledge of Cost Engineering combine to deliver an advantage to your project organization. Cost Engineering is currently working on a project for underground storage of natural gas. As more and more energy companies are switching to gas for their power plants for environmental reasons, there is a bigger need for gas storage to cover the peaks of gas use in winter. Underground gas storage is a natural choice for energy companies worldwide as it limits risks and gives a potential capacity of millions of m3. Cost Engineering has been involved with these kinds of projects from the feed phase up to and including doing cost control during execution. Quite a special project in the energy sector is nuclear fusion project ITER. It is one of the most complex scientific and engineering projects in the world today. The complexity of the ITER design has already led to a whole range of new and better performing technologies. However, further science and technology are needed to bridge the gap to commercialization of fusion energy. An important step in bridging this gap is an accurate estimate of the costs of the project. But how do you estimate an unprecedented and complex project like ITER? Material is shipped in from all over the world, labor is conducted in different countries and because of the long-term orientation we have to take into account escalation and contingencies. Because of Cost Engineering’s years of experience in estimating capital costs in a broad range of industries, ITER asked Cost Engineering to perform the cost estimate of this unique project. Visit www.costengineering.eu or contact us to find out how to benefit from our products & services.Power
Best ratio between cost and quality
Taking calculated cost and as-built cost into account
Power plants from 400 million to over a billion Euros
Experience based on a series of projects
Underground gas storage
ITER
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In recent years, the marine industry has seen a significant decrease of profit margins and number of orders due to worldwide challenging economic circumstances. This development (further) enhances the need for efficient and accurate Capex and Opex estimates to ensure future profitability and reduction of risks. Cost Engineering can help you decide between executing projects or abandoning them with use of our extensive cost estimating and cost management knowledge and expertise. For managerial decision making, you should be able to rely on your cost estimates. If a cost estimate does not represent the highest quality standards, there is a high risk of cancelling profitable projects or incurring cost overruns. Cost Engineering makes sure your estimates provide a solid basis for decision making by following internationally acknowledged recommended practices and a structured estimating plan. For new cost estimates or validations of existing estimates (e.g. provided by your contractor) Cost Engineering can assist you during the full life cycle of your project, ranging from conceptual estimates with an accuracy of 50-40% up to detail estimates with an accuracy level of 1-5%. Planning is vital for the success of your projects. Each day a project gets behind schedule results in lost revenues. A good planner keeps an eye on progress, scope changes, as well as all outside factors which could influence the planning. Cost Engineering understands the importance of these influences and can assist you in developing a realistic planning for your projects. This ensures a tight integration between time, resources, and costs. Heerema Group, a multinational company that transports, installs and removes all types of offshore facilities, makes use of the software and services of Cost Engineering to be able to estimate the cost involved in their projects more efficient and accurate. Not only do they use our software and services for tendering projects, which are as diverse as constructing a production platform to laying pipes on the seabed, the software also gives Heerema the ability to run scenarios. These scenarios enable them to more accurately assess the most cost effective way to execute projects, as well as assessing the risk involved in the choices that are to be made. Furthermore, we constructed a specific knowledgebase with estimating data for Heerema, performed by Cost Engineering’s certified cost engineers, who did an extensive analysis of internal and external data and combined this into a tailor made knowledgebase to be used by Heerema Group for their projects. Visit www.costengineering.eu or contact us to find out how to benefit from our products & services.Marine
Efficient and accurate Capex and Opex estimates
High quality standards
Realistic planning for your projects
Heerema Group
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Investment decisions in the pharmaceutical industry often involve large amounts of money and a relatively short time to recover those costs. Therefore, estimates created for this specific industry have their own needs and requirements. Cost Engineering understands these requirements and has successfully executed multiple estimating projects for some of the largest corporations in this industry. Cost Engineering propagates a full life-cycle approach to cost estimating just as to all other parts of our client’s projects. The main reason being, that a full life-cycle approach will make sure a project will not just be a success in one of its phases, but over its complete lifetime. We thereby take into account the complexity of Pharmaceutical projects and ensure every strategic decision is made with all relevant data available, accurate and up-to-date. Bayer, probably one of the largest and well-known chemical and pharmaceutical companies in the world, uses the software of Cost Engineering to estimate and manage the costs of their projects. We have executed a tailor-made implementation procedure to ensure the best possible outcome for all their future projects. Visit www.costengineering.eu or contact us to find out how to benefit from our products & services.Pharmaceutical
Unique needs and requirements
Full project life-cycle
Bayer
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Investments in railroads have grown rapidly worldwide, partly due to technological advancements leading to increased complexity, whilst excessive project expenditures are more and more criticized since quite a lot of them are (semi-)publicly funded. This means that efficient, accurate cost estimating and actively controlling costs is of true added value. Cost Engineering can help realize this through our cost estimating and project control services, as well as our software Cleopatra Enterprise. For managerial decision making, you should be able to rely on your cost estimates. If a cost estimate does not represent the highest quality standards, there is a high risk of cancelling profitable projects or incurring cost overruns. Cost Engineering makes sure your estimates provide a solid basis for decision making by following internationally acknowledged recommended practices and a structured estimating plan. For new cost estimates or validations of existing estimates (e.g. provided by your contractor) Cost Engineering can assist you during the full life cycle of your project, ranging from conceptual estimates with an accuracy of 50-40% up to detail estimates with an accuracy level of 1-5%. Visit www.costengineering.eu or contact us to find out how to benefit from our products & services.Railroad
Actively controlling costs
High quality standard
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