This is the area of engineering where principles, norms, criteria and experience are utilized to solve problems of cost estimation, budgets and expenses, economic evaluation, planning, and management and control of undertakings.
Cost engineering goes beyond predicting investment costs, covering the entire construction phase. Cost engineering is applied to the various contractual modes under the same allocation of proceeds through planning, control and monitoring of costs.
PLANSERVICE METHODOLOGY COST ENGINEERING
Initial Planning: is the group of processes for collecting the preliminary information, whether regarding the customer’s needs, the business or validations of the standardized processes and documents issued by PLANSERVICE.
Contracting: This consists of the group of processes in which prices are collected, proposals from suppliers are equalized, the project budget is consolidated (primary baseline), and the contract is officially entered.
Physical and Financial Planning: In this group of processes, the consolidated and approved budget is reconciled with the physical schedule, generating the expected flow of disbursement in the project.
Execution and Control: This consists of the group of processes in which measurements and collection of the fiscal documents take place, and which require possession of all the cost control, financial and contract reports on the undertaking.
Closure: is the final group of processes in which the closing of costs, financials and contracts in the project are performed.
BENEFITS COST ENGINEERING
A budgeting system and control procedures that are poorly elaborated generate inconsistent information making it impossible to set budget targets.
A well-designed budgeting and control system provides:
- Delivery of consistent Cash Flow Information;
- Control of the value of money over time (present value versus future value);
- Target Cost - Systemic control of the transition from the project design phase to construction, ensuring that the target cost is not exceeded;
- Rapid delivery of information to inform key decision-making, whenever such information is necessary;
- Preparation and delivery of customized reports;
- Identification of quantities and value amounts of contingencies;
- Physical/Financial control via the Earned Value Methodology;
- Forecast of the final cost of the project at the end same;
- Forecast of the final date of the project.
