One of the initial, but highly critical tasks for the established commissioning team is the function of construction verification. As construction activities progress, minor and major equipment are installed and the processing facility begins to take shape. Generally, a tri-party walk down (construction, commissioning, and operations) occurs once a system’s construction activities are complete, however, in order to speed up this process and minimize punch list items, it is recommended that the commissioning team make regular site visits to closely monitor the build progress, as well as identify any installation issues whilst construction is still underway.

During the construction phase of the project, it is important that the Commissioning Manager and their team have a strong understanding of the project’s political landscape and inter-team relationships. This is vital as the commissioning team needs to be seen to be assisting the construction team and overall delivery, as opposed to hindering construction progress.  However, it is also important that the construction team is led by the delivery requirements of the commissioning team, and that a sufficient quality verification and handover process are completed prior to handover to energization. This can be tricky to manage, as the skillsets and KPIs associated with construction activities differ from commissioning activities, with significant pressure to achieve key construction milestones regardless of completion and quality requirements.

The exercise of regularly monitoring the construction activities will generally minimize the construction-commissioning handover duration by catching any issues early, whilst also familiarising the commissioning team with critical parts of the processing facility. This in turn increases the team’s understanding of the facility and reduces the overall commissioning effort.

Typical issues identified by inspections and tri-party walk-downs include:

·         Equipment installed in incorrect locations or incorrectly tagged.

·         Equipment in an incorrect orientation.

·         Poor ergonomic design or installation, such as a valve handle that protruded into an escape walkway.

·         Pipe runs installed too low, or with a low point that cannot be drained.

·         Incorrectly installed instrumentation, resulting in poor measurement accuracy.

·         Incorrect gasket material being used.

·         Control and NRVs installed in the incorrect orientation.

·         Lack of preservation, reducing the life of critical equipment.

·         Mixed metals incorrectly joined.

·         Incorrect cabling installation.

·         HSE concerns such as sharp edges or trip hazards etc.

It is vitally important that the construction and commissioning teams operate as a cohesive unit, with the shared goal of delivering the process start-up in the most efficient way possible. There have been many projects delayed by more than 6 months, purely due to the lack of synergy between the construction and commissioning teams, resulting in significant re-work, frustration, and general project inefficiency and cost blowouts.  The most efficient projects have an agreement between the construction and commissioning teams, to minimize hindrances to construction activities whilst also meeting the ideal start-up requirements. Additionally, the commissioning team should be mobilized to site early enough in the construction phase to allow sufficient time to conduct these checks and builds relationships with the construction team.