Study On The Influencing Factors Of Cost Control In The Construction Drawing Design Stage Of EPC Projects

In recent years,in order to realize the convergence of domestic construction market with international construction market,the State Council and the Ministry of Housing and Construction have issued many policy documents to vigorously promote the development of EPC mode of general contracting,and the number of domestic EPC projects has increased year by year.In practice,as EPC projects often adopt fixed lump-sum contracts,cost control becomes an important issue that general contractors must pay attention to in the projects,which is related to whether the general contractors can achieve good economic benefits,but in practice,due to the lack of management ability of domestic general contractors,the projects often suffer losses,and the cost control effect of the projects needs to be improved urgently.It is found that the construction drawing design stage is the key stage for the general contractor to implement cost control,and the procurement and construction of the project are based on the complete construction drawings,so it is important to grasp the cost control in the construction drawing design stage to save the procurement and construction costs and improve the overall economic benefits of the project.Therefore,an in-depth study of the factors influencing cost control in the construction drawing design stage of EPC projects is important to improve the overall cost control effect of the project,thus improving the competitiveness of the general contractor and promoting the EPC model in practice.This paper firstly defines the meaning and characteristics of EPC projects and the concept of cost control by combing the previous literature,and also explains the classical theories used in this paper,such as value engineering.Next,through research and analysis of domestic and international high-quality literature and interviews with relevant experts,20 influencing factors on cost control in the construction design phase of EPC projects are identified and classified into five dimensions: organizational,economic,technical,turnkey management,and project environment according to their attributes.The hierarchy between the identified secondary influencing factors is divided using the explanatory structural model,which lays the foundation for the construction of the structural equation model of influencing factors.Next,the theoretical model of cost control in the construction drawing and design phase is constructed,and the variables and research hypotheses of this paper are proposed based on the theoretical model.The structural equation model with 6 latent variables and 24 observed variables of this paper was constructed based on the theoretical model.Based on the observed variables,a questionnaire was designed to collect questionnaire research data from project practitioners and relevant experts and scholars in practice,analyze the data quality,and import the data into the structural equation model in AMOS 24.0 for model modification and adjustment.Based on the optimized model obtained after the correction,the paths of influence factors are explained and analyzed.Finally,this paper gives the general contractors’ suggestions on how to improve the cost control of EPC projects in terms of strengthening the awareness of personnel cost control,dominating the design scheme by cost concept,setting reasonable and effective cost saving incentive mechanism,improving the integrated management of design,procurement and construction in the design stage,understanding the owner’s demand and increasing the audit of the basic information provided by the owner.The countermeasures and suggestions on how to improve the cost control effect of EPC projects are given.Based on the research results,the turnkey contractor can further clarify the various influencing factors in the cost control of EPC project construction drawing design stage,including organizational,technical,economic,turnkey management,and project environment factors,and clarify the degree of influence of the influencing factors on the cost control effect in different dimensions and the path of action,so that they can develop a suitable cost control strategy for the project,solve the problem of detachment between design and construction in reality,reduce the phenomenon of design changes,and achieve good project profit.