Discuss the current situation of some designers
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This post was last edited by leileienn on 2015-7-1 at 11:32. It merely discusses the current situation of design professionals in some companies; I can’t say that this is the case in all companies, but I can say that this is how design work is carried out in many companies these days. Chemical engineering design is becoming increasingly difficult these days. One has to make the changes that the client requests; if one wants to argue with the client, the project manager doesn’t dare to do so. Especially with the current tough economic conditions, many companies can’t even get any projects, let alone dare to argue with clients. Companies are willing to do anything to please their clients, and design engineers have no choice but to endure this situation. The consequence of this is that a great deal of effort is spent on modifications in the early stages, resulting in wasted manpower and resources, while the deadlines still remain unchanged. Deliverables must still be produced by those dates. For example, in a design project that lasts 4 months, perhaps the first 3 months are spent on making adjustments to things like the overall layout, PID diagrams, pipe size tables, etc. By the time everything is more or less finalized, only 1 month remains for actual design work. The consequences are obvious: designers from various fields cannot dedicate proper attention and care to designing something for you, as there isn’t enough time. Sometimes, even once a design is completed, it isn’t reviewed at all; it’s not that they don’t want to review it, but rather they simply don’t have the time to do so. One can imagine the quality of the drawings produced in this way – they’re full of problems, and there are also numerous issues during on-site construction. The end result is that the property owners complain, the construction contractors complain, and the designers keep making changes over and over again; they’re also upset and complain to the company. In the end, everyone will be complaining, which makes it more likely that there will be shifting of blame among them and that the owners will refuse to pay. Yet the revenue of design firms is on a downward trend; companies fight fiercely to win projects, bidding at rock-bottom prices or even in the red. Designers reluctantly complete the projects, only to see their incomes decline and their compensation get lower; coupled with such feelings, this is the situation in many chemical engineering design projects these days. . . You know, if our chemical engineering consulting and design services gradually turn into what’s described in the text, it’s not hard to understand why so many chemical plants explode every year. After a chemical plant explodes, it has serious consequences for the residents living in the vicinity, for the entire city, and for the chemical industry as a whole. This leads to stricter regulations on chemical plant construction in those areas, resulting in fewer projects related to chemical engineering consulting and design. As a result, design firms and engineering companies struggle greatly to secure new projects, sometimes even incurring losses while carrying out designs, which in turn leads to poor quality of designs, and eventually more explosions at chemical plants. . . Let’s move on then. Those who are interested can search online for the article titled “The Strategy of Winning Projects at Low Prices in Engineering Design – Starving Competitors, Exhausting Oneself, and Deceiving Clients”. Please provide a link; it’s written very well too. (External link: http://www.landbridgenet.com/wenku/2015-06-29/20221.html) http://bbs.hcbbs.com/thread-1254312-1-1.html I hope that **the industry can reverse this situation soon. If this continues, the chemical consulting and design industry in our country is bound to face a dark future with no sign of improvement. It’s not well written; everyone, just take a look and then leave.
External links cannot be included in our posts. It can be shared. Actually, the chemical industry is in a downturn right now; at other times, what we focus on is personal growth and future development
In fact, all industries face similar problems of vicious cycles. . . It needs to be resolved urgently. . .
Designing is difficult; it’s even more difficult for those who do the designing. The client company oversees the construction team – these are three major challenges.
To do good design means fulfilling one’s responsibilities to the clients. But these days, the design cycle is getting shorter and shorter – how can one talk about being “fair” in such a situation? You talk to the company, and they say it’s for survival; you talk to the owner, and they say time is money. You can only talk to the people who actually do the work, but that doesn’t help at all! I thought it was just my own feeling; turns out everyone feels the same way. If they follow the company’s approach, the so-called \"mainstream\", are designers living up to themselves? Is it fair to the construction workers? Are we living up to our fellow shift workers? Now, the only thing to do is to find a balance – safety first! Making no mistakes comes at a high cost as well: either responsibilities have to be shifted and redefined, or safety margins have to be increased, which results in very high design costs. But this isn’t what I want. Perhaps my skill level isn’t high enough or I haven’t found the right approach to achieving this balance. . .
Design must have certain limits; one needs to be thoroughly familiar with the relevant standards, so as not to be led around by the client. In case of disagreements, one will have solid arguments to back up one’s position.
That’s the state of the market these past two years: many property owners don’t have any expertise in this field yet still make numerous demands. The company tries to meet those demands as much as possible, and the designers have to make repeated revisions. For a project that takes two years to complete, it’s already considered fast if it takes 3 months from the time the list of required materials is prepared until the blueprints are ready.
It’s not just the chemical industry; this situation exists in other industries as well.