Not following standardized commissioning processes on your projects in the least efficient way to complete projects.

Now it’s OK if your projects have not standardized commissioning, this is the case for many projects, and it has been this way for decades. Many people still believe that it is not possible to standardize commissioning for their unique projects.

Standardized commissioning processes really just mean defining the way you complete the work.

It’s similar to how the rules of the road define how we drive through cities and highways.

But imagine if there were no rules that were standardized for how we drive on our roads. Would this be an efficient way to get from Point A to Point B? Of course not, our roads would be in total grid-lock, as each driver did whatever they wanted or whatever they thought was best. Our roads would be unsafe and impossible to navigate!

Project commissioning requires standards to follow just like our roads require rules to follow. Both allow us to efficiently accomplish what we need to do.

Without a standardized way to complete commissioning, project teams define their own way from project-to-project, which may not be the most efficient way to complete projects, and certainly not efficient when you have to redefine the process for each project.

As new people join your team, they’re not sure how to complete commissioning as the process is inconsistent.

Without a standardized way to complete commissioning, the process varies from project-to-project and person-to-person, making it much more inefficient to complete your projects.

Instead, a more efficient approach is to standardize commissioning with processes that are specific to your industry and specific to your projects. Standardized commissioning processes allow you to optimize your project commissioning and continually gain efficiency as you complete each project.

“Standardized” and “specific” do not contradict each other, since there are standard commissioning processes to be followed that are tailored specifically to your project’s details. The list of equipment tags isn’t too critical, but the process for how these tags are grouped into subsystems and how each subsystem is completed during construction are standard processes to follow. And there are standard processes to follow for commissioning in all stages of projects (as early as procurement and design stages), so that the on-site commissioning stage is set up for success.

The process to complete construction and the process to manage your gated commissioning workflows is the same, regardless of your project-specific process control narrative.

Projects that aren’t following these standard construction completion processes and standard commissioning workflows struggle with consistency from project-to-project and when new people join the team. This leads to inefficient project completions, costing projects time and money as the last stage of commissioning is a scramble to try to complete in half the time.