I was asked recently to what depth of preparedness and preparation do we need to go to as a commissioning team?
For me this was an easy question to answer, for me the devil is in the detail and if we expect to go through our commissioning campaign referring to and relying on check sheets to give us the transparency to demonstrate we have done everything in our power to make a plant ready and then put a new plant into operation, well, we better think again.
We have to show that we have put sufficient thought into how we commission something, anything, yes, for sure there is a place for check sheets to literally check things have been done, but the actual work of commissioning must be undertaken at procedure, step by step level, just as you would an operating procedure, in fact commissioning procedures are a precursor to the operating procedures but I have written on that topic before.
So as I indicate in my presentations, “check, check and check until you can check no more”, but prepare in detail, be all over that detail and draft your procedures accordingly.
Safe and successful commissioning always…