Process Commissioning: how to get it right – part 1

ByIAadmin
Your innovative product can only be made if you buy, install and start-up a new process? How do you ensure that your expensive new equipment will deliver? Whether it’s just one piece of equipment or a whole new process, you’re going to need to be good at Process Commissioning and Start-up. If you’re not, you risk making expensive mistakes that impact your business.
This is the first of two articles to help you get Process Commissioning and Start-up right. You can find part 2 here.

What is it?

Before we get going, I should be clear about what this article covers. Industrialising a new process is such a vast subject I need to focus on a small part of it. I’m talking specifically about something I call Process Commissioning and Start-up.
It starts with new process equipment installed and mechanically and electrically tested. But it has not yet been cleaned, filled with any product or run in any meaningful way. For those of you with some experience in industrialisation, it starts after mechanical completion and includes pre-commissioning.
The end point is the handover to the manufacturing team of a fully operational industrial process, making good product at the target cost and quality.

This article is a brief introduction

I won’t go into detail because that would turn this article into a book and I already had to split it into 2 parts. In this part I’m going to share my experience and the tried and tested approach I’ve used over the years to get new processes up and running. In part 2 (here) I will share what can go wrong when real life meets the theory.
One final thing. I’m going to talk from the point of view of implementing a large new process because this is the most challenging scenario. However, everything here can also be applied to small changes in processes. Whether you are starting a whole new process or one new piece of equipment, the same principles apply but for small projects you’d apply them in a smaller, lighter way.
Now, you know what the two articles are about, why should you read them?

You need to be good at Process Commissioning and Start-up

There are so many reasons why your company needs to be good at commissioning and start-up. Here are a few of them:

SAFETY

This is the most important reason. Starting up a new plant is a time of significant fluidity and of increased risk of accidents. Unexpected events can happen, people are under pressure and potentially tired. Often multiple companies are working on site simultaneously. You need to have the controls in place to ensure the safety of all staff.

TIME-CRITICALITY

Because commissioning and start-up come towards the end of the development process, the time-pressure can be huge. Customers may be waiting for product, your factory may be unable to produce other products when the new process is being started-up. I have never been in the situation when I had more time to start a process than was originally planned.

CONSEQUENCES OF FAILURE

Imagine all the work that has gone on just to arrive at the point where you are about to commission and start-up your new process. You may have invested large amounts of money, time and expertise. You may have publicly told the world about your major new investment. Now imagine that your start-up fails. Product cost and quality are not good enough, you can’t launch the products, your new process just does not deliver. Apart from the wasted time and money, the reputational damage to your company could be huge.

EXPENSE

It’s not cheap to start up a new process. You will be making industrial quantities of product. If things don’t go well, you’ll be making industrial quantities of waste too. Many people will be involved – production & other factory staff, external contractors, R&D. Time is money and errors at this stage could cost a lot.

EXPECTATION

The chances are all your stakeholders will have high expectations of this new process. The bigger the stakes, the bigger the expectation. It can be a blessing. Having senior management support can be very helpful. However, it can also be a curse; high expectations can also lead to high pressure on the start-up team.

IT’S NOT EASY

It seems obvious to say, but because of the inherent complexity of this activity, it is difficult to achieve a perfect start-up. Things will go wrong. Unexpected events will occur. This is where you will need great project management skills to keep things on track.
So, these are the reasons you should focus on this part of the innovation process. But like many other things in life, what you do BEFORE you are in front of a brand new process is important.

Before you start – the Pre-requisites

Commissioning and start-up come near the end of the development process, so there are many things to get right before you arrive here. They will be the topics of future articles, but here are some key technical pre-requisites you’ll need to have before you start.
A CLEAR AND DETAILED PROCESS DESIGN.
The process design is a key deliverable of R&D work in labs and pilot plants. It should unambiguously detail what process steps are needed to turn raw materials into good end product.
I recommend that the information is captured in a Process Design Specification (PDS) document, written by the R&D team. The PDS should be complete and detailed enough to be used as a foundation for all subsequent industrialisation activities.
THE RIGHT PARTNERS.
You will need to work with 3rd-party contractors for all kinds of activities from designing and building bespoke equipment and buildings to installing and starting-up the equipment. How well you work with these partners will impact on the success of your industrialisation, so you must choose them well!
ROBUST ENGINEERING DESIGN & EQUIPMENT PROCUREMENT.
To take your process design from an idea to a reality, you’re going to need to procure some equipment. To ensure you get the right equipment, you should have a robust system in place for specifying, selecting and checking it. This is the case whether you do this in-house or outsource it all to a 3rd party engineering firm.
BUILDING CONSTRUCTED, EQUIPMENT INSTALLED & MECHANICALLY TESTED.
It’s logical that before you begin to commission a new process it should be installed and operational to a minimum standard.  The same applies to any buildings you need to construct too.  Sadly, this is often not the case and as we’ll see in part 2, construction and installation work can still be going on when you need to start.

Key Success Factors

Let’s imagine you have all the pre-requisites in place. What then, are the key success factors you’ll need to get your process up and running?

A clear framework

You need a structured approach that guides the team and helps everyone know what the status is at any moment. I recommend a “stage-gate” style approach starting with detailed Definition & Planning. This is followed by a highly structured Commissioning stage, then Product Qualification and Supported Production before passing into Full Production.

Commissioning protocols

Prepared in the planning stage and based on the PDS, commissioning protocol documents are the detailed trial plans and acceptance criteria for every step of commissioning and start-up. They are crucial so you know what you need to do to prove the new process works as designed.

Clear performance/sign off criteria

Everyone needs to know what needs to be achieved at each stage of commissioning and start-up. I recommend a formal “sign off” at key stages, to ensure shared responsibility and common understanding of the status.

Clear roles, responsibilities & accountabilities

Commissioning and Start-up is an activity at the interface between R&D, Factory and 3rd party teams. It’s crucial that all players have the same understanding of what their role is and what they need deliver.

Good preparation & planning

I strongly recommend you take the time to design, plan and prepare for commissioning and start-up well in advance of your first commissioning day. Remember to do this in collaboration with the site team and external partners.

Good project management skills

Commissioning and starting-up a new plant is a “project within a project”. Managing it as such is important. Look for an experienced project manager and don’t forget risk management too!

“Bounded Agility”

As the saying goes, “expect the unexpected“. As the other saying goes, “anything that can go wrong, will go wrong“. Be ready to adapt plans and find creative solutions to issues, without taking unnecessary risks.

To sum up part 1… and introduce part 2

Hopefully this article has defined what I mean by Process Commissioning and Start-up and why it’s extremely important. You should also have an idea of what needs to be in place before you find yourself in front of a brand new process that you need to get going. Finally, you have my list of the key factors you need to have in place during your commissioning and start-up activity.
So, if you have everything in place, it’s a piece of cake right?… Wrong!
In real life things will not go as planned. In part 2 of this article I’ll tell you about some of the issues I’ve experienced and give you some tips for dealing with them.

Have a question or comment?

Contact me

Further reading

Web article (general): https://commissioningandstartup.com/the-commissioning-process-a-step-by-step-guide/

Web article (safety focus): https://hsseworld.com/systematic-approach-for-safe-mechanical-completion-pre-commissioning-commissioning-and-startup/

Wikipedia Murphy’s Law: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murphy%27s_law

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