zlacker

I "grew up" in industrial automation, I feel ya on delays. I relocated overseas for DCS project on a new chemical plant. The planned length of the assignment was 14 months...4.5 years later, we were finished. One EPC was not able to get the underground utilities installed in time before other EPCs (there were 4) started moving in pipe racks, equipment modules, etc. Imagine trying to put in all your underground cables, sewers, pipes, etc. after the site had already been built on top.

Another EPC was moving so fast to try and meet a project milestone in order to get paid, they installed an instrument enclosure totally backwards (huge crane required to drop enclosure into place). They still got paid as the milestone didn't specify the enclosure had to be installed correctly.

One of annoying aspects about controls is that non-technical stakeholders see a mechanically complete object/machine/plant and wonder why it isn't working yet. Also, I always found that the controls guys were the first to get yelled at if something at site stopped working.