Beyond Commissioning: The Role of Automation

People in the construction industry, engineering and manufacturing heavily rely on the projects approach to various tasks. They have embraced technology to make things easy including in the commissioning stage. Automation is one product of technology that has changed how commissioning is now done. The managers now have a hands-on operational readiness to perform any task that is before them.

 

Virtual commissioning is now taking shape as managers have started using this concept. A special software integrates the real operations with a simulation of the project so that the managers can compare the commissioning stage parameters with the progress in real time. Those who have already used this approach will admit to having saved time and experiencing enhanced quality of the commissioned project.

How to Automate Commissioning

With sophisticated IT experts, the engineers and contractors can get any software that they want. All they need to do is sit down with the software developers and agree on what they need to include. Such software programs are sophisticated, and they capture all the relevant data as they make reports. Here are important commissioning areas they need to cover.

• Planning and design phase – it is not too early to cover this stage since questions will arise during the commissioning. This is where the objectives are created and the commissioning manager starts the journey.
• Construction phase – much of the project time is during the construction. The commissioning manager will collect most of the data here. She or he will also work together with the other managers to ensure that all the set parameters are fulfilled according to the standards and owner’s requirements. It is also at this stage where the commissioning manager will have all the checklists tested. So, the software must allow this.
• Project commissioning – the last part is the commissioning of the project. Some people call it handing over the stage. This is where the software must do a final check and ensure that all the parameters are fulfilled. If all has been running well, this stage should have no hitches. After all, the automated system has all the data.

The Future of Automated Commissioning

The future has numerous developments in waiting. According to the evolution of the technology to date, we can expect a lot. People are still using manual keying in of data and sending reports over email. Today, we have wireless communication, which is used by managers during their reporting. Some of the concepts we expect in future automation of commissioning include the following.

• More accurate software – as of now, some software that is used has some challenges that lead to poor results. As more operations are getting integrated and people are coming up with creative methods, we expect better commissioning software in the future. It will be more accurate in giving results and will speed up the project time.
• Virtual commissioning – even though some organized commissioning managers have started using this concept, we expect this automation to take better shape in the near future. This way, the experts and managers will be in a position to incorporate the commissioning tasks early in the project.