A major lesson learned on all projects is that early commissioning involvement would have mitigated many costly delays later during commissioning. This is an expensive lesson to learn but easily mitigated when commissioning is properly planned for early in projects.

Having commissioning input earlier during Front End Engineering Design (FEED) allows project owners to write contracts that include commissioning commercial and technical requirements, ensures that the work is structured by systems through all stages to align with the startup sequence, and allows all project participants to understand the clear goal of what’s required to finish projects on-time and on-budget during commissioning and startup.

Having commissioning input early in projects allows project teams to plan to finish on-time and on-budget, saving project owners millions of dollars – every time, all the time.

But how do project owners achieve early commissioning involvement from a practical standpoint?

It’s not that easy to do in reality, since everyone is focused on getting the project started, rather than getting the project finished. And the commissioning guys are busy on other projects – they’re hard to find and they’re not available to help with contract development.

You’re also unlikely to hire your commissioning team years in advance. You’ll need their input during specific points in your project delivery lifecycle such as when contracts are being drafted and when engineering designs are being reviewed, but you’re not going to hire someone full-time when their input is only required for a 2-month period of time, only to have them sit around for the other 10 months of the year. Besides, the commissioning guys are busy working on other projects, they’re difficult to find.

So, the next approach may be to rely on your engineering design resources – they’re already involved early in the project and they’re working on preparing the design packages – and they’re smart, they should be able to figure out commissioning, right? And while they may be able to define some of the technical commissioning requirements, there are a few things they aren’t able to determine:

• They won’t be able to help with the commercial commissioning requirements that are required in EPC contracts and equipment supply contracts
• They’re not familiar with the site logistics that are required to safely and efficiently perform commissioning
• And they don’t know the critical project management aspects that are required such as how your CMS Software is used, the gated commissioning process to follow, and how this all links together in a scheduled list of activities to complete your project

And it’s not your engineering team’s fault that they can’t do this, they are great at preparing engineering design packages with technical commissioning information, but they just aren’t familiar or don’t have the experience with the commercial and project management aspects of commissioning – it’s just not their area of expertise.

When the commercial and project management aspects of commissioning are missing, this is what causes significant delays and cost overruns on projects. And it is too late in your project to figure these things out just prior to on-site commissioning – important commercial details have already been missed, important project management steps were not undertaken, and all the commissioning guys can do when they arrive at site is let you know how much it will cost to fix these expensive mistakes.

So what do project teams do to achieve early commissioning involvement so their project doesn’t end up late and over-budget?

This is exactly why I created the Commissioning Academy – to give project teams the early commissioning input that is required to finish projects on-time and on-budget. When you get our part-time support for the commissioning expertise you need, you can:

• Make sure that all commercial and technical requirements are included in contracts before they’re even awarded, so that you get what you need from all project groups
• You can make sure that design and construction deliverables are in alignment with what is required for successful commissioning and startup, so that you are able to meet your project in-service date on-time and on-budget
• You’re able to get your project team set up with the most advanced software tools and commissioning workflows that are required to manage your project commissioning and de-risk your project completion
• And, you’re able to show your project team how this all works, how this all comes together at the end of your project, so they can focus on getting their job done and meeting your project in-service date

With our help, you and your project team are empowered with the industry-best commissioning methods to successfully complete your projects.

For project owners that understand the challenge of finishing projects, this is how you give your project team the best chance of success.

However, for project owners that ignore any of these critical project inputs, your project will likely end up late and over-budget, since this is how 9 out of 10 projects end up.

So don’t let your project go millions of dollars over-budget – contact us to see how we help you and your project team simplify commissioning through all stages so that you can successfully complete your project.