{"id":7176,"date":"2007-11-01T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2007-11-01T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/insulation.org\/io\/articles\/a-different-perspective-the-importance-of-keeping-historical-data\/"},"modified":"2017-06-09T20:21:56","modified_gmt":"2017-06-09T20:21:56","slug":"a-different-perspective-the-importance-of-keeping-historical-data","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/insulation.org\/io\/articles\/a-different-perspective-the-importance-of-keeping-historical-data\/","title":{"rendered":"A Different Perspective: The Importance of Keeping Historical Data"},"content":{"rendered":"

The power industry is only as good as the historical data it keeps on all the components that make up a power facility. Without historical data, original equipment manufacturers and construction companies lose their ability to improve boiler design and labor productivity. More importantly, they lose the ability to establish accurate costs, budgets, and bids; and risk lowering their companies’ profitability. <\/p>\n

With the increase in today’s new boiler construction, now is the time for those in the construction industry to increase their level of understanding of the components, the labor crafts, and the historical data that pull it all together. Good, up-to-date, historical data is needed on vital boiler components like brick, refractory, insulation, and lagging (bril) to keep these boilers thermally and energy efficient.<\/p>\n

A modern day boiler is a box formed by membrane welded water wall tubes that uses the fire inside the furnace box area to heat the water inside the water wall tubes into steam. Covering these water wall tubes and sealing gaps and openings are the brick, refractory, insulation, and lagging materials (hereafter referred to as bril). These bril materials are all key components for every type of steam-generating boiler and are used for personnel protection, heat conservation, and to help maintain boiler efficiency. <\/p>\n

Steam, steam-generating boilers, and bril materials have been around since 200 BC, when the Greek designer Hero designed his Aelopile, which used steam as its power source. The steam-generating industry can debate how and when the industry actually started—whether it began with the water tube boiler designed by Mr. Wilcox in 1856 or with Mr. Blakey’s boiler design in 1766. Both can be said to have led to the development of the brick-faced boiler design, which was the forerunner of boiler designs today. The brick-faced boiler had no water wall tubes but used brick walls (18 to 22 inches thick) to form the fire box, which encased tubes located inside these brick walls. The brick walls formed the fire box area and acted as a barrier to keep the fire inside the furnace box and prevent heat loss. Later boiler designs included the tube and tile boiler (boilers with wide-spaced water wall tubes enclosed with flat tile or brick and insulation), the flat studded boiler (closer spaced water wall tubes covered with refractory and insulation), the tangent tube boiler (water wall tubes on very close tube spacing covered with refractory and insulation), and finally the membrane tube boiler (smaller water wall tubes welded together and covered with insulation and lagging). Regardless of when the industry started, however, bril materials were required from the beginning, and so was the need to keep historical data. <\/p>\n

As recently as 15 years ago, most boiler companies (power plants, engineering and manufacturing, and construction type) had a department, group, or resident expert bril person to support and monitor bril material requirements. These designated experts recorded and kept bril historical information, from the proposal stage to final contract completion. They understood that bril historical data begins with the calculation and compilation of quantitative bril material takeoffs that can then be used to generate labor and material cost estimates. Most companies’ policies were to have these takeoffs compiled along with the cost estimates regardless of whether the bril work was to be done using in-house labor craft or an outside contractor. The same takeoffs and cost estimates were used to help monitor material procurement, labor man-hours, labor productivity, labor inefficiencies (see Figure 1), and boiler design changes or flaws. Obviously, these companies knew the importance of bril materials and their impact on boiler designs, company profitability, and project scheduling. <\/p>\n

Unfortunately, today’s boiler companies reflect today’s business trends. The trend now is for these companies to outsource bril material requirements, continue to cut back on human resources and expertise, and ignore the value of keeping historical data. The discontinued practice of keeping historical bril data also includes the calculation of quantitative takeoffs and establishing labor and material cost estimates, which are now all outsourced. <\/p>\n

What Is the Danger in Not Keeping Historical Data?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Keeping historical data helps improve boiler design; correct design flaws; document labor variances by region or country; improve labor productivity; and establish better costs, budgets, and bids by building con-bed estimating data for use on future boiler projects.<\/p>\n

The term “con-bed” means “construction base estimating data.” It is an estimating data system (sometimes called voodoo estimating) that uses historical data from actual contract material takeoff quantities, material costs, and labor man-hours as a tool for bidding new projects of similarly designed steam-generating boilers or air-pollution systems. <\/p>\n

Most steam-generating boilers and air-pollution equipment—regardless of manufacturer—are designed to be similar to a previously designed and sold system. The difference may be the physical dimensions and boiler capacity (megawatts). This duplication of design helps reduce engineering costs and improve shop fabrication costs. The bril designs for each different boiler type will use the same material type and thickness, and will only vary in quantity required for that particular boiler’s size and capacity requirements.<\/p>\n

To create a bril con-bed estimating database for a particular boiler design, one would complete the following steps:<\/p>\n

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  1. Develop actual contract quantitative material takeoffs of the boiler proper (including boiler and furnace walls, penthouse walls and roof, wind box casing, vestibule casing, steam lines, soot blower piping, and boiler trim and drain piping).<\/li>\n
  2. Calculate material and labor cost estimates, labor man-hours, and expected productivity using the quantitative takeoffs developed in Step 1. <\/li>\n
  3. Establish a standard envelope or “E” number value that will be directly related to the physical dimensions of the boiler proper (see Step 1). For example, E = 2 x (width of boiler + depth of boiler) x (height of furnace).<\/li>\n
  4. Divide the cost estimates and labor man-hours established in Step 2 by the fixed-number values established in Step 3. This will establish the con-bed base estimating cost and man-hour values for each bril component.<\/li>\n
  5. Divide the material quantitative takeoff amounts (lineal footage, square feet, etc.) as established in Step 1 by the fixed-number values that were established in Step 3. This will establish the con-bed base quantitative takeoff values for each bril component.  <\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    This new con-bed estimating and takeoff database will allow the following:<\/p>\n