Contact Us | Join | Officers | PDHs | Programs | Speaker Kit | Vendor Prizes | White Papers

7x24 Exchange, Midwest Chapter

2009 Conference: Program | Register

   HOME

Presented by Jim Brooke, Acting Chief Engineer, Division of Facilities Management, Kansas Department of Administration; Alan Lehman, P.E., Associate, George Butler Associates, Inc.; John Riley, P.E., Associate, George Butler Associates, Inc.

Signs Commissioning is Working – An Owner’s Perspective

A Quick Review

Commissioning critical systems verifies functional interactivity among all facility systems during normal, emergency, and failure scenarios.  These systems typically include electrical, mechanical, control, monitoring, fire alarm and owner processes.

Commissioning - Why

In a typical critical application, an owner wants a facility to perform very complex and essential functions throughout its life cycle.  The challenge is defining exactly how reliable the processes must be, under what possible circumstances, what tests will prove this performance and what owner initiatives are needed for the long term.

Commissioning – Who

Commissioning can be done by the owner, but is generally performed by a skilled third party, answerable to the owner.  The owner’s core competencies seldom include adequate experience with the planned critical processes and design-construction-testing.  The owner needs a commissioning service as experienced as possible with the particular critical processes and construction projects of the anticipated complexity and size.

Commissioning – How

Commissioning processes supplement traditional facility planning-design-construction-testing.  The commissioning agency works with the owner, designers, contractors and testing agencies to define the design intent, potential failures, training, and tests needed to prove out the systems.  Full service commissioning documents all steps, results, O&M Manuals and warrantees.

Signs of Successful Commissioning

• Participants understand that commissioning is done to improve the design, reduce change orders, improve system reliability, and prepare the owner team for skilled operation and knowledgeable maintenance.
• Teamwork and cooperation are evident in the design and construction teams.
• Commissioning requirements are included in every participant’s contract.
• Commissioning steps are shown in the master construction and project schedules.
• Design Intent Document describes unacceptable failures and conditions precisely.
• Problems and test failures are communicated in a non-punitive tone.
• Various failures are introduced to verify mission critical operations continue.
• Training is seen as an opportunity to successfully hand ownership to the owner.
• O&M Manuals and training are provided before verification testing.
• Owner training includes appropriate manuals, videos or DVDs.
• All documentation is in a usable electronic form.
• O&M Manuals are in electronic form with precise model and accessories marked.
• Design Intent plans for maintenance steps while critical operations continue.
• Participants remain aware that human error causes most critical system failures.
• Team is creatively alert – “Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition”. (M. Python)