End-to-end

End-to-end is an approach in which a single company is responsible for the entire delivery of a project, from the first analysis through to a working end result, rather than just a selected part of it.

In industry, an investment in a new line or installation consists of many stages. The client can award each of them to a different company: analysis and concept, design, equipment supply, installation, automation and commissioning, all separately. The client then has to coordinate all the contractors, make sure their work fits together and decide who is responsible for problems at the interfaces between their scopes.

In the end-to-end approach, a single partner manages the whole project, covering:

• needs analysis and assessment of the problem in the production process,
• the concept and budget, including a comparison of solution options,
• design of the process technology, piping, structures and automation,
• procurement and delivery of equipment from different manufacturers,
• prefabrication and installation on site,
• automation and integration with the plant’s existing systems,
• commissioning, acceptance tests and operator training,
• often also servicing and support after the investment is completed.

For the client, this means a single point of contact and a single point of responsibility for the result. It is easier to keep the solution, budget and schedule consistent, because decisions at each stage are made by the same team that knows the earlier assumptions.

A similar concept is turnkey delivery, in which the client receives a finished, working installation. The term “end-to-end” also emphasises that the contractor is involved from the very first stage, that is, from identifying the problem, rather than only once a design is ready.

Example: A pet food manufacturer wants to increase its wet food output but does not know which point in the process is limiting the line. It commissions a single company to deliver the project end to end. The company analyses the process and finds that sauce preparation is the bottleneck. It prepares several solution options with budgets and, once one has been chosen, designs a new sauce preparation station, procures the equipment, prefabricates the piping, installs the system during a planned shutdown, integrates it with the existing automation and commissions it. Throughout the project, the manufacturer deals with one partner, who is responsible for making sure the line reaches the target output.