Cost Engineering Committee (CEC)

IPA’s Cost Engineering Committee (CEC) focuses on advancing the cost engineering and project controls capabilities of the world’s leading industrial companies to drive improved business results for capital projects. CEC members get exclusive access to cost and schedule metrics and tools, in addition to cutting-edge IPA research and industry trends—all of which aid in unbiased conceptual cost and schedule estimating and validation. Members also receive opportunities for sharing and networking through annual meetings and periodic webinars.

Conceptual Estimating and Schedule Development
Provide factors, ratios, unit costs, etc.

Estimate Validation and Review
Validate both owner’s and contractor’s estimates using comparisons against industry norms

Comparisons Against Industry Norms
Apply unique empirical industry metrics

Calibration of Owner Tools
Avoid biased data and self-fulfilling prophecies

Summary Cost Metrics
High-level summary cost evaluations developed using IPA’s summary cost categories

Detailed and Unit Cost Metrics
Quantity-based trade and discipline account evaluations

Predictability Cost Metrics
Cost growth metrics at the individual cost account and total cost levels for contingency estimation and validation

Regional Cost Metrics
Detailed quantity-based metrics used to quantify regional differences in project costs using a bottom-up standard plant approach

Schedule Duration Metrics
Industry norms for schedule phase durations (as a function of project costs, direct labor hours, and material quantities) used to develop and validate conceptual and later phase schedules

Schedule Practice Metrics
Industry norms for activity characteristics, phase integration, networking, and resources, used to guide in-house schedule development and validate contractor-developed schedules

CEC data are based on data from IPA’s Project Evaluation System (PES®), not just data from CEC member companies.

• The PES® database includes thousands of onshore projects of all sizes, types, and locations, with over 5,000 characteristics per project
• IPA collects high quality project information that is verified in interviews with project team members using standard data collection instruments that are supplemented with other key documents
• PES® is used for competitive benchmarking, assessing project system performance over time, and evaluating individual projects
• Detailed empirical data are the starting point for IPA’s PES® methodology

Detailed and Unit Cost Metric Tool
Regression-based comparative analysis of detailed estimating discipline-level metrics, including cost-cost, man-hours/quantity, owner costs/hours etc. against industry norms considering project size, quantities, and process type

Schedule Duration Metric Tool
Build conceptual schedules at the phase level based on project size, industry sector, etc.

Summary Cost Tool
All CEC summary cost metrics at your fingertips with an easy-to-use interface

Cost Predictability Tool
Determine industry distribution for actual contingency used by completed projects to validate FEL 3 contingency estimates

CEC membership consists of cost engineering and project controls professionals representing owner and operator organizations in capital-intensive sectors, including fuels manufacturing & transportation; chemicals & petrochemicals; life sciences; mining, minerals & metals; food & consumer products; pulp & paper; and power & infrastructure.

Complete the form below to request more information about CEC membership!