Best practice enables better engineering projects

ABOVE: Overview of the ESS Construction Site in December 2016, focused on the Target Station Monolith puck construction

Building a world-leading research facility as large and advanced as the ESS requires a high level of standardisation for the involved parties to collaborate as successfully as possible. Having many experienced partners on board, the ESS Central Engineering Team has a unique pool of best practice experience to draw from.

A large portion of the ESS construction budget will be realised by means of In-Kind contributions from European Partners. This means that the project will reap the benefits of the many years of experience with engineering in large research facilities brought by its project partners. However, with a large number of partners comes many different approaches to the work.

- Many of our partners have been working with big science projects for 10-15 years, but they all have different approaches to their work, based on their previous experience. A common approach for building the ESS is therefore crucial for reaching our joint goal, says Peter Rådahl, Head of Engineering & Integration Support Division at ESS.

The need for a common approach and dialogue about the engineering requirements enabled a joint workshop in November, where engineering staff from ESS, ESS partners and BrightnESS In-Kind field coordinators met at ESS Bilbao for two days of discussions and sharing of experiences about the engineering aspects of big science projects.

- The workshop had much focus on the technical parts of the ESS project, but for the field coordinators, this was a great opportunity to get first-hand knowledge to use in their work with anticipating and mitigating risks, says Carlo Bocchetta, Head of BrightnESS Work Package 2.      

Standardisation will lead the way

During the workshop, representatives from several research facilities, including BrightnESS partners STFC, INFN, CEA and PSI shared their experiences in delivering to international collaborative projects. Part of the workshop was dedicated to standardisation, which the ESS Central Engineering Team expects to integrate even more as the ESS projects moves into the installation phase.

- We are currently moving into a new phase of the project, the installation phase, with a large focus on safety in the working environments. Abiding to Swedish law in this area will thus be the standard. For this phase, we can certainly use the best practice input from the workshop, to use in formulating and communicating our standards to the partners, says Peter Rådahl.    

In building the ESS, the Central Engineering Team will implement a high-level engineering strategy in terms of standardisation, which includes having one governing reference document, cross-organisational working groups, a common engineering manual and standard design and support tools. The high focus on creating common standards is in large parts driven by an aspiration to create more smooth working processes but also to stick to the project timeframe and budget.   

- Standards are necessary in a project like this. Having unclear standards can increase costs as, for instance, a laboratory might have to change things along the way. It is the responsibility of the ESS to create these standards and we are lucky to have so many experienced partners on board the project, says Peter Rådahl.  

The participants at the In-Kind Best Practice workshop, during one of the plenary sessions.

Increasing cross-partner communication

The construction of ESS comprises one of the largest active infrastructure projects in Europe. More than 40 In-Kind partners and over 100 institutions are involved in the design and construction. BrightnESS Work Package 2: Strengthening In-Kind Contribution and Coordination seeks to maximise the possibility for ESS and In-kind partner organisations to deliver value during the Construction Phase through the work on the In-Kind field coordinators.

- The field coordinators serve as an additional resource for the In-Kind process, as their work revolves around minimising and mitigating risks in the project. They therefore hold a lot of valuable information, not just for ESS but also for all of the involved partners, says Carlo Bocchetta.

During the workshop in Bilbao, a request for more communication from the ESS Central Engineering Team to the partners was voiced among the participants. In addition, the participants suggested an increase in knowledge sharing among the various partners and Work Packages. Having much knowledge about industrial and legal standards as well as a network throughout the whole project, utilising the field coordinators to improve and heighten the project communication seemed the obvious idea.   

- There is a great potential for the field coordinators to communicate their findings across the entire project. They know how to gather the right people and thus how to disseminate the content they collect. We will definitely work more with the input we received from the workshop participants, says Carlo Bocchetta.