Project Work Distribution, Cost Breakdown & Knowledge Required for Piping Design Engineers
In every industrial project—whether it is a refinery, a pharmaceutical facility, a data centre, a power plant, or even a simple water treatment plant—there are multiple engineering activities that take place from start to finish. The charts shown above represent three very important fundamentals:
- How project work is divided among major engineering functions
- How overall project cost is distributed across different systems
- What technical knowledge a Piping Design Engineer must have
Understanding these three topics is extremely important for students, freshers, and working engineers who want to enter design, EPC, consultancy, or construction roles.
✔ Understanding Project Work Distribution
Large industrial facilities are not designed in one day and not by one person. Instead, a project is divided into phases and responsibilities — and each subject expert contributes to successful execution. The shown pie chart represents a typical distribution:
- Detailed Engineering – 65%
- Piping Design – 25%
- Implementation Activities like Procurement & Inspection – 8–10%
The percentage may slightly vary based on industry, country, and project complexity, but in most cases, detailed engineering contributes the largest chunk.
1. Detailed Engineering (65%)
Detailed Engineering is the backbone of any project. It includes all technical planning, calculations, drawings, layouts, and modeling work that must be completed before construction begins.
Main Elements of Detailed Engineering:
- P&IDs, Process Flow Diagrams
- Piping layouts
- Equipment GA drawings
- Civil foundations
- Structural support details
- Cable routing, lighting layouts
- Instrumentation design
- Data sheets, BOQs, 3D model review
This stage ensures that every design is safe, economical, and compliant with engineering codes. It removes clashes, avoids rework, reduces costly mistakes, and prepares a clear execution path for the construction team.
2. Piping Design (25%)
Piping alone consumes a huge chunk in a process plant. Pipe routing, stress analysis, material selection, insulation, support design, and space management are all important activities. This major 25% involvement shows that piping is one of the most dominant disciplines in industrial projects.
Piping engineers directly interact with:
- Mechanical (Rotary & Static Equipment)
- Civil & Structural
- Instrumentation
- Electrical
- Process Engineering
Their work ensures that fluid flow is smooth, pressure is controlled, thermal expansion is accommodated, equipment loads are safe, and construction feasibility is considered.
3. Implementation, Procurement & Inspection (8–10%)
Once drawings and engineering documents are ready, procurement teams start floating tenders and selecting suppliers. Quality inspection, technical evaluation, vendor document review, and delivery checks also come under this stage.
Although small in percentage, this activity is critical because:
- Right vendor selection reduces failure risk
- Proper inspection ensures safety
- Correct measurements and checks prevent shutdown issues
Therefore, even though it is a small slice, it plays an extremely important role in ensuring the reliability and long-term durability of the project.
✔ Cost Distribution in a Project
The second chart represents where the money of a project actually goes. Many people assume piping consumes the highest cost, but that is not true for most industrial facilities.
Typical cost distribution:
- Major Equipment – 62%
- Piping – 14%
- Instrumentation – 5%
- Electrical Equipments – 7%
- Building Structure & Foundation – 8%
- Insulation – 2%
- Painting – 2%
This cost breakdown clearly shows that most money goes into equipment purchases. Especially in oil & gas, power, data cooling, pharmaceuticals and heavy processing plants, equipment dominates the overall budget.
Why Major Equipment Takes 60%+ Cost?
Large capacity machines cost crores. Examples:
- Centrifugal Pumps
- Heat Exchangers
- Chillers
- Cooling Towers
- Compressors
- Large Tanks
- Skid Units
- Dryers, Filters, Separators
These are not purchased off-the-shelf. They require custom manufacturing, testing, engineering compliance, third-party approvals, FAT, SAT, and vendor guarantee.
Therefore, they carry the highest cost in any project.
Why Piping Cost is 14%?
Piping occupies long space, but it is made of repetitive components such as:
- Pipes (SS, CS, HDPE, GRE, Alloy)
- Elbows
- Reducers
- Valves
- Flanges
- Supports
Although quantity is large, unit cost of standard components is low compared to machines like chillers, turbines, compressors or large vessels. That is why piping comes at 14%.
What About Instrumentation, Electrical & Civil?
These percentages represent supporting systems. They ensure plant automation, control, safety, monitoring, foundation, electrical supply and interlocking.
Even though their cost contribution is small, they are equally important because a plant cannot function without reliable electrical power, instruments and structural support.
✔ Knowledge Required to Become a Piping Design Engineer
To enter the design field, engineers must have multi-disciplinary technical knowledge. Piping is one of the few subjects that touches every engineering domain including mechanical, civil, electrical, chemical, material science, metallurgy and process engineering.
The chart in the third image highlights three major knowledge categories:
- Material Knowledge
- Designing Knowledge
- Working Knowledge
1. Material Knowledge
A piping engineer must understand materials deeply because wrong material selection can lead to:
- Corrosion
- Leakage
- Contamination
- Pipe rupture
- Plant shutdown
Key material topics include:
- Piping Fabrication Methods
- Piping Components
- Material Grades (SS, CS, Duplex, Alloy, HDPE etc.)
- Corrosion resistance based on fluid
- Standards: ASME, ASTM, API, DIN etc.
- Metallurgy and metal selection
- Cost impact of materials
For example, a water-based cooling pipe cannot use the same material as a sulphuric acid supply line. Therefore, correct metallurgy knowledge is a must.
2. Designing Knowledge
This includes engineering calculations, layouts, and stress analysis. Some major areas:
- Piping Calculations (pressure drop, line sizing)
- Equipment Knowledge (pumps, exchangers, compressors, tanks)
- Understanding PFD, UFD, P&ID, ISO drawings
- 3D modeling tools (PDMS, E3D, SP3D, Plant 3D)
- Stress Analysis using CAESAR II, Rohr2, AutoPIPE
- Support Selection (shoes, guides, anchors, spring hangers)
Why Stress Analysis is Important?
Pipes expand due to temperature. If expansion force is not relieved, loads transfer to equipment nozzles which may:
- Bend pump shafts
- Crack exchanger tubes
- Damage tank shells
- Cause vibration failures
That’s why proper stress calculations and routing decisions form a mandatory designing skill.
3. Working Knowledge
Piping engineers also coordinate with other disciplines. So they must be aware of:
- Civil foundation levels
- Electrical tray routing
- Equipment access clearances
- Instrumentation cable layouts
- Process requirements (temperature, pressure, flow etc.)
They should also know codes like:
- ASME B31.3
- EN 13480
- ASME Sec VIII
- API standards
Without inter-discipline knowledge, piping engineering cannot be executed correctly.
✔ Why Understanding These Charts Matters?
- You learn how projects are executed
- You understand engineering cost impact
- You realise why multi-discipline collaboration is needed
- You get clarity about career expectations
- You become aware of required skills
- You understand how design quality affects construction
When engineers understand work distribution, design responsibilities and cost involvement, they make smarter engineering decisions.
Conclusion
Industrial projects are massive multidisciplinary activities. Detailed engineering forms the largest portion of work, piping remains one of the major execution disciplines, and procurement–inspection drives the final verification.
Cost distribution shows that most project value lies in equipment, followed by piping, electrical, civil and instrumentation. This breakdown proves how importance must be given to equipment selection, data sheet preparation and vendor management.
To be a successful piping engineer, one must master materials, design concepts, stress analysis, equipment knowledge, codes, and inter-discipline coordination.
When these four pillars — design, cost, materials, and working knowledge — come together, only then can an engineer confidently deliver a safe, efficient and long-lasting piping system.