How to Guarantee Failure in Brownfield Expansion Projects in the Process Industry

Want to make your brownfield expansion as painful and costly as possible?

Just follow these steps:

1️⃣ Bring in discipline specialists… but only after key design decisions are already made. Their insights will be much less useful then!

2️⃣ Design everything first, then go buy the equipment. Because who needs real-world constraints, right?

3️⃣ Hire a BIM manager who loves BIM—but doesn’t understand the project goals. Great models, Hollywood BIM, but not aligned with CAPEX savings or risk reductions.

4️⃣ Let only lawyers handle contracts with suppliers and contractors. Technical alignment? Coordination? Contracts with applicable project management clauses? Overrated.

5️⃣ Implement AI because "everyone is doing it." No strategy, no clear application—just AI for AI’s sake.

6️⃣ Use past project documentation without verification. Forget Laser Scanning. Because rework and surprises keep things interesting until the end of the project.

At Proyectos Engineering, we take the opposite approach—leveraging early specialist involvement, strategic procurement, and BIM with a purpose to optimize brownfield projects.

What would you add to this list? 👇