The Influence Of The Differences Between Chinese And Foreign Technical Standards On The Design Management Of International EPC Projects

Chinese Engineering-Procurement-Construction(EPC)contractors have been increasingly taking up the international market share and have been faced with a number of design problems,especially due to their unfamiliarity with the differences between Chinese and foreign technical standards.Being the first stage of EPC projects,design is a critical stage that have significant influences on procurement and construction,and exerts considerable effects on the overall project performance.Extent studies on the impacts of the unfamiliarity with the differences between standards remain at the theoretical level,and lacks the support of rigorous empirical evidence.In addition,limited research has been done to relate design problems of international EPC contractors with the differences of technical standards at home and abroad.This study systematically investigates the causal relationships between the unfamiliarity with standard differences,design ability,and EPC project performance by building and validating a conceptual model.An industry survey on Chinese international EPC contractors including the collection of 152 questionnaire and in-depth interviews with 30 experienced project professionals was conducted to collect quantitative and qualitative empirical evidence on their current design ability and the impacts of the unfamiliarity with standard differences.The results concluded that the unfamiliarity with standard differences can lead to design problems and lower the design ability of Chinese designers,and can exert negative impacts on EPC project performance.Path analysis was performed,and the results indicated two significant paths from the unfamiliarity with standard differences to EPC project performance.In general,the unfamiliarity of standard differences not only enhances the severity of design problems in international EPC projects and directly reduce the project performance,it also influences the overall project performance by exert negative impacts on the design ability of Chinese EPC contractors on projects abroad.Practical strategies were proposed to improve the design ability of Chinese international EPC contractors,including getting acquainted with foreign standards before the bidding stage by facilitating internal training programs,establishing internal experience sharing mechanisms,hiring technically competent design firms to review designs,and linking the interests of designers with the project performance.