4 common commissioning mistakes to avoid

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4 Common Commissioning Mistakes To Avoid

Posted by Steve Cochran on October 2, 2012 @ 8:39 am

Commissioning is usually that undefined time between construction and plant start up. If

commissioning doesnt go smoothly, you can count on start-up not going smoothly. I have commissioned

dozens of plants over the past 27 years and have seen firsthand the difference between a good plan and a bad

one. If you avoid these following mistakes Ive witnessed over and over again, your efforts will be more

trouble free with fewer self-induced headaches.

Mistake 1: Why do I need a plan? Lets just go out there

and start checking stuff out as soon as construction lands the wires.

As crazy as this sounds, Ive seen it many times. When you start energizing equipment while construction is

still terminating wires, it will really slow things down. If you have to start before construction is complete,

you will need a carefully thought out plan and daily meetings involving operations, safety, construction, and

commissioning. Some equipment will require vendors on site and their schedules arent as flexible as you

might need so plan wisely.

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Mistake 2: Why do we need all these expensive people? We can avoid all those high wages, travel, and

living expenses if we just use some of the construction crew and some of our own maintenance techs.

This might sound good initially, because the construction guys know where everything is located and,

besides that, they wired it up. Im not trying to knock construction, but if they were knowledgeable and

familiar with your collection of instrumentation, they would be technicians and not construction workers. As

far as the plant maintenance crew, its okay to use them if they are guaranteed to be dedicated to the

commissioning effort and without having to constantly run off to handle existing plant problems. Its going

to look like it costs more on paper, but in the long run youll recoup those charges with your great

commissioning job.

Mistake 3: Just plug it in. The skid vendor said it would work right out of the box.

Maybe the skid vendor promised plug-and-play, but some of these things dont perform as easily as you may

hope. As a matter of fact, you will be wiser to expect problems, because when east meets west, voltage

levels, contact configuration, logic, signal types, and many other small details will have to be worked out.

Many times you wont be able to run the equipment until start up, and you dont want to have to do that with

a crowd of onlookers while you straighten out a few minor details. If the equipment is complicated, you

might even consider source inspection at the vendor site before they ship.

Mistake 4: Well deal with documentation when we get caught up with things. Everythings on the

Internet anyway.

Gather tech manuals, drawings, specs, and other documents before you start commissioning, because you

wont be able to find everything at the vendors websites. It will take longer than you think for redlines and

as-built drawings to get back in the customers hands. They will need a set for operating, and youll need a

set for your CAD department. Those tiny changes you made will add up to a big job. Keep your master set in

one place, make updates daily, and dont make any exceptions.

These common mistakes may sound just like common sense, and they probably are, but Im amazed to see

them happen again and again.

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