COMMISSIONING / ACCEPTANCE TESTING
Accept it before you depend on it.
Replacing more than 30 end-of-life analyzers through tender, factory testing, installation and handover.
PCS Singapore · About 2 min read
- My role
- Program lead from tender through factory testing, installation and handover.
- Constraint
- Each replacement had to fit around a continuously operating plant.
- Decision
- Accept in stages, factory, site, integration and handover, each against written criteria.
- Outcome
- 30+ analyzers replaced; new site measurement standards set.
- 01Specify
Acceptance criteria written into the tender.
- 02Factory test
Witnessed against the criteria before shipment.
- 03Site test
Installed, connected and checked in place.
- 04Handover
Documentation, training and spares in place.
Correct it there; each later stage costs more to fix.
Illustrative acceptance stages, each witnessed against criteria agreed in advance.
PERSONAL CONTRIBUTION
What I contributed
- Directed a $5M+ program replacing 30+ end-of-life gas chromatographs.
- Ran a competitive multi-vendor tender and technical evaluation.
- Led factory acceptance testing and site implementation.
The situation
Process gas chromatographs measure stream composition continuously, and the plant relies on their readings. More than 30 of them had reached the end of their supported life. Replacing them meant choosing a supplier, proving the new systems before they arrived and changing each one over around continuous operation.
What I did
At PCS Singapore, I directed the $5M+ replacement program: a competitive multi-vendor tender, technical evaluation, factory acceptance testing before shipment and site implementation. I also piloted analyzer technologies that went on to set new site measurement standards.
The result
More than 30 analyzers were replaced through staged acceptance, and the pilots established new site measurement standards.
The engineering principle
Each acceptance stage answers a different question. A factory test shows the system was built as specified; site tests show it works in place; integration shows it works with everything around it; handover shows the people inheriting it can run it. Skipping a stage moves its questions to a less convenient time.
INSIDE THE DECISION
What should each acceptance stage prove?
The stages I plan before equipment is ordered.
Test once, on site
- What it offers
- Fewer test events and less travel.
- What it asks of the design
- Defects surface late, when fixes cost the most and schedules are tightest.
Accept in stages
- What it offers
- Find each problem where it is cheapest to fix.
- What it asks of the design
- Agree criteria, witnesses and evidence for every stage in advance.
Questions for a design review
- Write acceptance criteria into the tender, not after the award.
- Witness factory tests against those criteria before shipment.
- Verify installation and integration with the surrounding systems on site.
- Hand over with documentation, training and spares in place.
A system is accepted when the evidence shows it does what it was bought to do, where it will be used, by the people who will run it.
Terms used on this page
- Factory acceptance testing
- Testing equipment and its software at the supplier, against criteria agreed in advance, before it is shipped and installed.
- Gas chromatograph
- An analyzer that separates a gas sample into its components and measures how much of each is present.
- Analyzer
- An instrument that measures what a process stream is made of, rather than just its pressure, temperature or flow.
Diagrams are conceptual and do not depict any employer system.