COMMISSIONING MANAGEMENT SERVICES

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BEST PRACTICE COMMISSIONING FACTORS

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In project management, commissioning is a crucial
phase. For the stakeholders involved as well as
the entire project team, project commissioning is
the only way to ensure that the project is in
accordance with the regulatory requirements and
the design document. During the commissioning
phase, functional testing procedures are
performed, interoperability problems are
resolved, and energy usage is optimised for
enhanced performance and efficiency. In a
construction setting, building commissioning
firms need to ensure that all facets of the
project are appropriately installed, designed,
maintained and tested. The tasks of a
commissioning engineer entail tracking progress,
troubleshooting potential issues, carrying out
tests, helping with financial improvements,
conducting audits and preparing reports while
being a dedicated supporter of the owner of the
project throughout the entire construction phase.
During the project commissioning phase, a single
wrong step can lead to regulatory and legal
issues as well as client losses.
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COMMISSIONING FACTORS
Planning Construction projects are highly
dynamic and comprise several moving components.
The commissioning management must stay on top of
everything, and hence it is utterly important to
have a foolproof commissioning plan in
place.Preferably, the owners of the project
should involve a building commissioning
firm prior to the design phase and the operation
phase. This will allow the commissioning engineer
to act as an intermediary between the contracting
and design team to ensure complete adherence to
the owner's project requirements (OPR).Such an
early engagement ensures that commissioning is
part of the entire project delivery plan.
Planning also includes defining the commissioning
schedule, scope and budget as well as bringing in
an efficient commissioning team.
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COMMISSIONING FACTORS
In the planning phase, the commissioning team
should also agree on the distribution format, the
system and the documentation of problems. The
best way to do this is by having a
cloud-based commissioning management system. A
design initiation meeting with the whole project
team will ensure that everyone involved is on the
same page while being fully aware of the
commissioning and design plan requirements.The
commissioning plan should consist of a
contingency plan to handle unanticipated
situations like adverse weather conditions or
equipment failure that can delay the
commissioning phase. Hence, it is important to
develop project commissioning checklists and
procedures well before the commissioning
activities.
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COMMISSIONING FACTORS
Factory Acceptance Testing (FAT) Factory
Acceptance Testing (FAT) assesses pre-functional
equipment as well as checks if it is in
accordance with the design specifications. Being
an important part of the commissioning phase, it
should be performed soon after purchase and also
regularly once the use of equipment starts.Any
failure to implement FAT appropriately put off
issues that can later prove to be very costly to
resolve and can leave a more devastating impact.
For instance, poorly implemented FAT for
automation like failure to involve the PLC logic
design may lead to a giant problem towards the
completion of the project. For HVAC systems, a
test and balance procedure is carried out as part
of FAT.FAT should ideally be part of the entire
project testing strategy. It is therefore
recommended to follow a proactive approach to
Factory Acceptance Testing and resolve issues and
fix errors before it is too late.
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COMMISSIONING FACTORS
Mechanical Completions In general, every
mechanical completion appears as simple as a
subsystem. But, things may turn complex as soon
as you throw in a couple of systems with delivery
sequences and milestones. Complex handovers and
missed milestones can affect the successful
delivery of the project. You should have
appropriate mechanical completions to smooth out
the handover process. Here is how you can achieve
thisDefine every mechanical completion
beforehand Put out the expectations at the
beginning of the project while mentioning when
mechanical completions are supposed to align with
the commissioning activities.Define the
boundary Commissioning and construction
activities usually overlap to enhance the
schedule of the project. Mechanical completion
documentation outlines the areas that are under
construction (under the custody and control of
the construction team) and also the areas that
are under testing (under the custody and control
of the commissioning team).
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COMMISSIONING FACTORS
Construction Quality The system quality obtained
from the construction team decides the success of
the commissioning phase. The construction team
should execute a quality management system
(QMS).The QMS describes the quality control
(QC) role and quality assurance (QA) role of the
construction team and the project owner,
respectively. Inspection test plans (ITPs)
outlines details of quality control. The QA
further makes sure that the contractor adheres to
the QC and ITP plans.Below par installations
that cant be assessed and are needed to be
handed over to the construction team signify a
faulty QMS with poor QC and QA. Moreover, test
procedures created at the start of the project
are a sure-fire way to smooth out the
commissioning process and boost construction
quality.
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COMMISSIONING FACTORS
Schedule Management The schedule changes
constantly and requires regular update. Hence,
schedule management is critical to successful
commissioning.To avoid turning schedule
management into a task, the schedule should just
include block activities representing an outcome.
For instance, if there is just a week for loop
checks to be carried out on an automated system,
mark it as just one-week activity. Its not
necessary to involve minute details of every
panel being assessed, given that all are assessed
within a week.Accurate schedule management is
important for mechanical completions. The project
team monitors progress while sharing regular
feedback to the commissioning team on
meeting-specific milestones. Productivity is said
to be achieved if the progress is satisfactory
with respect to predefined timelines. If it is
not achieved, remedial measures should be taken
or the impact of commissioning control sequence
should be determined.The project team should
never be notified of the probability of a missed
important milestone when it is due schedule
management lets such an event to be apparent well
before time for the development of a recovery
plan and figuring out possible options.
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A Better Way to Oversee the Commissioning
Phase Many commissioning engineers find it
challenging to handle the commissioning process
because they often rely on obsolete methods.
Paper and spreadsheets might have been the only
options available several years ago, but today,
there are far better ways to managing
commissioning. Project commissioning best
practices recommend using advanced commissioning
software to oversee the whole process. Using a
cloud-based commissioning management system helps
streamline and enhance the commissioning process,
so you could get it right the very first time.
With a powerful commissioning tool, it becomes
easier to perform commissioning-related
activities, like following pre-commissioning
checklist, recording data by filling up test
record, and having your test scripts
automatically created by uploading your asset
list. An advanced project commissioning software
solution therefore, ensures clear tracking,
traceability and accountability for every step of
the commissioning process for all your assets and
systems.


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