Today was a big day.

After much work over the past week or so and the brain dump of yesterday where all possible other commissioning systems were identified, along with all other commissioning systems already decided upon, we made many, many post-it labels with system ID tags written on them.

Then in the time honoured manner we spread the post-its out on the table and then one at a time, with much re-shuffling, constantly referring back to P&ID’s and process project descriptions, we placed all the systems in the order we want them delivered from the construction team.

This complete and after much debate of what we need when, we are now left with an all encompassing list of the commissioning sequence we require from the construction guys. This is of course in an ideal world; this information will now be passed to the scheduling team to be drafted into the overall commissioning schedule at level two. We plan to add initial durations for the commissioning period tomorrow…

An eventful and productive day.

Safe and successful commissioning to you always…

Hello all,

Apologies, not really any different news to update you with. My commissioning systemization and activity determination work continues, it draws to a close. Tomorrow is a big day as we will conduct an overall project prioritization including the assigning of duration’s for the activities.

I have other work piling up, including the inclusion in the project execution plan of the commissioning facet of the project, more probably on that next week…

My quest to recruit my commissioning team is starting to build, so some energy will need to be placed in that direction soon.

I return back to the UK later this week, partly as it is Thank-Giving here in the USA but I shall also be speaking at a commissioning training event at the Hilton Paddington in London.

Safe and successful commissioning to you always…

As the week progresses in our commissioning planning exercise, to build on the systems we have identified, we are also identifying the various activities we will conduct and as we are also preparing the commissioning aspect of a major EPC schedule, we are trying to assign responsibility for the activity in question.

Very detailed activity matrices are being written which in essence plot the following key activities:

1. Pre-commissioning (these activities include cleaning, loop testing, electrical testing, some initial filling, either with chemicals and oil and including tower packing and desiccant fills.
2. Who the responsibility will lay with, e.g.  EPC contractor or client. This topic always raises debate as we could be using chemicals in cleaning procedures, or steam for blows, so it is important who has control over the activity.
3. The cleanliness criteria
4. Client witness and hold points (a hold point must be witnessed, a witness point activity can be undertaken if the client is not available)
5. Commissioning activities, general description of main commissioning activities totally under control of client after handover.

The creation of these activity matrices will, along with the systemized drawing, arm the scheduling department with significant information to produce a robust level 2 plant. When prioritized correctly it will produce an accurate schedule especially when we carry out our final activity, putting durations to the activities.

Safe and successful commissioning to you always…

My attention to date this week has been focused on, along with excellent colleagues from the construction and other commissioning members, pulling together the a key phases to prepare the way for the commissioning element to be included in the drafting of an EPC contract and to form the basis of the main commissioning level 2 plan.

Today I want to share with you the systemization sanity check.

You will remember from a few blogs ago, we had decided to conduct preliminary systemization at PFD level. This has successfully been undertaken (I even did a plant unit myself!) and formed the basis of the sanity check. We began our sanity check sessions with a general appraisal of the unit in question. This is absolutely an essential prerequisite as it allows those perhaps not as familiar with the process to get a basic understanding. Following on from this each systemized PFD was then projected onto a screen and the virtues of the systems discussed, both in isolation and of course with relevance and dependency on up and downstream systems.

Based on this information some systems were consolidated and others created. The basis of good system identification as always is the creating of useful commissioning sections that add value to the overall start-up process, in essence I do not want a commissioning system given to my group that does not provide us opportunity to conduct useful activities which must help forward the overall completion of the plant process.

Safe and successful commissioning to you always…

This morning I completed the systemization via PFD’s of one of the plants on my complex. It has been good to get back to real commissioning work. I completed a Reactor and Distillation section plus a scrubbing area. Once I had completed the systemization (the good old fashioned way, highlight pens and a red pen to indicate system breaks) I then completed the corresponding system pages on an activity matrix we are also filling in, indication main pre-commissioning activities that will be conducted by the EPC guys and those actual commissioning activities that my team will execute.

Later in the day I also completed my manpower excel spread sheet so I can graphically demonstrate the manpower build up and then release profile for the team.

Safe and successful commissioning to you always…

Another busy day, they all are right now…

I was interested to sit through a presentation this morning given by a company who specialise in guiding organisations through the “operational readiness” process. It was enlightening to see their perspective on where emphasis should be placed, and what stages of the project etc. For commissioning they suggested you need to know how the Handover phase was going to work, how to punch list, train the operations and maintenance team and finally of course the paperwork and documentations structure, all things we all know about…

The rest of the day I spent finalising my manpower costs. I am on a large project currently so the numbers are a wee bit frightening however in the manpower cost as well obviously determining the numbers of direct staff you have also remember to…

1. Get a feel for industry norms for managers, senior e engineers, junior engineers and assistant type roles (admin etc.)
2. Do not forget to include overtime payments
3. Costs of recruitment companies
4. Retention bonuses paid at the end of the assignment
5. … and pay rises across the period the guys will be working with you.

I have had enough of numbers and spread sheets today!

Safe and successful commissioning to you always…

… on commissioning methodology and commissioning paperwork systems.
When: 28th November (day one of a two day training event)
Where: HiltonPaddington, London, UK.

What: Commissioning Management Training Event

Hope to see some of you there…

Apologies again my gentle readers for the radio silence.

I have been off to South Africa to attend some “in house” company training on commissioning methodology. I really enjoyed my trip; I was introduced a few new tricks and some nice new ways of working, so although a long journey, it was time well spent. No doubt some of my findings will make their way to this blog in due course.

The second week of my trip I found myself conducting a commissioning readiness audit I guess we could call it, on my company colleagues on a large billion Rand project over there. I spent four happy days talking commissioning, discussing techniques, sharing war stories and having really a very good time. I am pleased to report that although I had some technology experience wisdom to share, the team on the project in question were very well prepared, well done guys!

I am back in the USA and have today been back to grass roots, systemizing a section of my new plant and making lists of all the commissioning activities that we will need to undertake on the plant. Fun times…

Best wishes from rainy Houston,

Safe and successful commissioning to you always…