(70b) Commissioning Planning - the Key to a Successful Project Startup
AIChE Spring Meeting and Global Congress on Process Safety
2018
2018 Spring Meeting and 14th Global Congress on Process Safety
Management Division
Managing Project Start-Ups and Your Career
Tuesday, April 24, 2018 - 8:30am to 9:00am
In most industrial capital investment projects, the final stage of manufacturing technology delivery involves some combination of factory acceptance test, site acceptance test and post installation support. The intent of these services is to allow buyers of manufacturing systems to assure that systems meet specifications and lack any performance defects. Performance, as defined in nearly all specifications, is based upon nominal conditions. Unfortunately, variation thrives in factories. The combination of raw material variance, human error, environmental factors, infrastructure fluctuations and process interdependencies can cause significant performance issues within newly installed manufacturing systems. Successful projects account for these natural fluctuations in processes and establish more than equipment acceptance tests, they incorporate a commissioning plan. The commissioning plan recognizes the importance of running new systems in their natural environment, complete with variation. Deliberate testing beyond process boundary conditions allow startup teams to establish a set of process controls that ensure high quality production at required throughput rates. This presentation will offer a template for developing successful commissioning plans and provide a few examples of industrial operations that leveraged effective commissioning.