ET Management and Advice is regularly asked what commissioning is and why it is so important. When the answer comes that commissioning can save lives, Bertus Toering is stared glassy-eyed. Not only by laymen, but also in the business world. Commissioning is not well known everywhere, but the fact is that a company like ET Management is the final gatekeeper: the actual final checks on whether a building and its installations are sound are the expertise of this Purmerend-based company.
The more complex the installation in a building is, the more a company like ET Management and Advice can put its expertise to use, because it is precisely then that there is a situation where a button cannot simply be pressed. You can compare it to a plane on the runway: first, the pilot has to tick off all the items on the checklist before he can take off with his plane. Something he does meticulously, because this work is literally of vital importance.
Although the work of ET Management and Advice may seem more abstract to many, it is basically no different from the work of a pilot. And there is more to it than just ticking off the checklist. It is at least as important that a precise sequence is followed so that checks and testing of installations take place in the right setting. Only then will it be clear whether everything is working as it should and whether the promised improvements have been made or whether the documentation is in order.
The latter makes it clear that commissioning can be more than just a role of ‘last man standing before kick-off’. A sensible company will involve a commissioning expert at an earlier stage, or preferably from the start of the project, to detect and remedy ‘woeful errors’ in good time. This is not only a safer working process, but also often saves money in the end. The fact that ET Management and Advice is called in for a particular project is, after all, the result of experience that suppliers cannot be trusted one hundred per cent. For example, cheaper materials are used than agreed, leading to corrosion or mechanical stress. Or parts are only tested randomly instead of all under the required tension or pressure.
Thorough process
ET Management and Advice does take a thorough and comprehensive approach in this respect. So that, as a customer, you ultimately have checked and signed documents that guarantee agreements. In other words: you will have documents that accurately show what, how and when the commissioning was tested, so that you will be in a strong legal position if a guarantee has to be claimed.
Naturally, everyone would like to avoid such a scenario. ET Management and Advice therefore advises you to seek as much advice as possible when drawing up a commissioning plan. In this way, in collaboration with a specialist such as Bertus Toering, a plan can be drawn up that is as accurate as possible, with clear control and action points. If you start doing this in good time, even before construction starts, you as an entrepreneur will reap the benefits when the performance of an installation is tested after construction.
Commissioning is always important, but especially with plants in the pharmaceutical industry and nuclear energy, which is related to medical isotopes, Bertus Toering’s field of expertise is essential. Broadly speaking, the tasks can be described in the following five steps:
Step 1. Checking the ‘paperwork’ and a first physical check
Step 2. Cold’ commissioning
Step 3. Warm commissioning
Step 4. Critical test phase Site Acceptance Test (SAT)
Step 5. Integrated Site Acceptance Test (i-SAT)
For more detailed information on this work process, see https://bertustoering.nl/en/the-work-process/