author: Marko Bulić

All 40 yeworking life, I spent on erection of different process plants most of which were oil industry projects in the country and abroad, in Europe and North Africa. Since 1978 with occasional interruptions because of simultaneous involvement in several different projects, in proces of making man hour manual I worked mostly on technical calculations. I have made hundreds and hundreds calculations based on all kinds of tenders and erection of mech anical equipment. The tenders were written in various foreign languages and alphabet, even in Cyrillic.

I am fully aware of the problems an estimator encounters when working on technical calculations for specific technologies. Very often tenders were not complete and not detailed enough, and the time required for a good technical calculation is getting every day shorter. It is not easy to present exact technical figures and quantities for the equipment or operations not fully defined, hard to comprehend, or even unknown to the estimator, my man hour manual is a summary of 40 years of expirience in calculating man hours for various jobs. Technical terms and expressions written in different languages and dialects are often incorrect and specific for individual branches. Enormous experience is needed, an ability to assess and estimate, and even the courage to write down the technical quantities and figures. That was the reason for collecting various technical bibliography, standards, catalogues, man hours and rates from the European and USA countries. I have made the analyses, comparisons, simulations, new measures, and manhour tables. A great deal of that was verified in practice during the plant erection. I surveyed the results and analyses of as-built designs.

On many occasions, I sought a compromise between different opinions and standpoints. Too many things collected on too many places. Finally, I decided to write this manual for discriminative estimators. It is important to understand that there are no identical projects or jobs in this business, that each project is specific and that no automatism or copying is possible. Approach to any job should be serious and professional and a technical calculation should be made with the assistance of this Manual. Many people try to include the man hours from the tables into the computer systems, which I oppose. Those are the people, which instead of using a computer, a computer uses them. An estimator himself must choose the values and define the man hours taking into account all the elements that might have any influence on them. Only when the relevant man hours are estimated and selected, a computer can be used. A saying “Switch on your brain before switching on the computer” should be followed. The most complex work in developing these man hours was the work on the man hours for piping above ground. A basis I used was a system for estimating the value of erection works of a German Company LINDE, which I completed and modified. Generally, for elaboration of the man hours for erection/installation of process equipment, I used the English man hours of the Oil and Chemical Plant Constructors Association, but I used other sources as well.

Man hour manual can make your job more accurate and can save you your time & money.

CHAPTERS

author: Marko Bulić