Electrical Engineering & Design Change SOP
An electrical engineering and design change SOP for Scanel: technical assessment, system design, drawings and schematics, an engineering review, and a customer-approval gate on the design before installation and commissioning begin.
How it works
Replace the lanes with your actual design-office roles
This chart uses Customer, Engineering, Design and Project Manager. If your design office splits load calculations from drafting itself, or splits the ATEX/zoning check out of the general engineering review, give that role its own lane rather than folding it into Design or Engineering.
Put your own review criteria on the engineering-review gate
"Design passes engineering review?" needs a stated checklist, class or flag rules, ATEX zoning, load calculations, equipment ratings, not just a second engineer's general impression. Write the actual criteria into the row's comment field so the reviewer isn't relying on memory of what a passing design looks like.
Name who has the authority to sign off the customer-approval gate
"Customer approves design package?" is the one decision in this chart where letting an unsigned design through is expensive later: once equipment is ordered or installation starts, unwinding a disagreement costs far more than catching it here. Attach a named role, not just a title, so there's no ambiguity about who can send the design out to installation.
Set People and Workload on every row before you rely on the BI panel
The workload panel can only total hours for rows that carry them. Fill in People and Workload for each step as you adapt the chart, using realistic effort hours rather than elapsed time, so a design running through two review cycles actually shows up as extra hours for the right engineer.
Decide exactly where this SOP hands off to your other SOPs
"Hand off approved design package to installation and commissioning" is a boundary, not a detailed step: it should name the Marine Electrical Installation SOP and, where re-commissioning is required, the Electrical System Commissioning SOP, rather than trying to describe their steps inside this chart.
Frequently asked questions
What triggers the start of the electrical engineering and design change process?
The process starts at "Customer requirement received": the customer has a system they want designed or changed, a new consumer, a replaced switchboard, a modified distribution system, but no engineered scope yet. That's what separates this SOP from Marine Electrical Installation SOP, which starts from a scope the customer has already had engineered.
Why does the design get reviewed internally before it goes to the customer?
"Design passes engineering review?" is a second qualified engineer checking the design against class or flag rules, ATEX zoning where relevant, load calculations and equipment selection, not just whether the drawings are complete. A fail routes to "Revise design and drawings per review comments" and back through drafting, so what reaches the customer at "Present design package to customer for approval" is a design Scanel's own engineering has already stood behind.
Why is customer approval a decision gate here instead of a sign-off at the end of the job?
Because by the time a job reaches its end, equipment has usually already been ordered against the design's bill of materials and installation may already be underway. "Customer approves design package?" sits before "Hand off approved design package to installation and commissioning" precisely so a design disagreement surfaces on a drawing, where it's cheap to resolve, rather than after equipment has been bought or fitted, where it isn't.
Does this SOP cover the installation and testing work itself?
No. "Hand off approved design package to installation and commissioning" is deliberately a handoff, not a detailed step: the installation work belongs to the Marine Electrical Installation SOP and the test and energization work belongs to the Electrical System Commissioning SOP. This chart only records that the handoff happened and that a confirmation came back, at "Installation and commissioning completed, confirmation received", before picking the as-built documentation back up.
What happens to the drawings if the field crew deviates from the approved design during installation?
That's what "Update drawings and schematics to as-built status" and "Compile as-built documentation and equipment specifications" exist to capture: any deviations logged during installation are folded into the documentation package before "Deliver as-built documentation package to customer", so the customer keeps a record of what was actually built rather than only what was originally drawn.