02.24.2021
The Value of Project Commissioning: An Engineer’s Perspective
Commissioning in the construction industry is a process to confirm that systems are planned, designed, installed, tested, operated and maintained to meet the owner’s project requirements. It is not a new concept, and dates to early shipbuilding days where prior to setting sail, ship equipment needed to be installed, tested, problems identified and corrected and the crew trained. The Building Commissioning Association (BCxA) describes building commissioning as “a systematic, intensive quality assurance process that ensures a building’s compliance with the Owner’s Project Requirements.”
With the increases in complexity and sustainability in system technology today, the need for commissioning continues to rise. It is crucial to verify the reliability in critical mission buildings, and to save energy by confirming that systems and components work as designed. Although new building commissioning is the most well-known in the construction world, commissioning an existing building can help identify areas where energy can be saved by resetting all the control points to the optimal levels and fixing or replacing malfunctioning equipment, such as sensors.
At Faith Technologies, our commissioning engineers are charged with ensuring the appropriate commissioning procedure for each project is being completed, to benefit our customers and our project teams. Thorough commissioning ensures safety and protects technicians and equipment during energization by applying correct lock-out/tag-out (LOTO) procedures, assessing risks and providing all possible protections to mitigate those risks.
Our quality control and commissioning team provides many project benefits, including:
- Accurate budget and manpower requirements for quality control and commissioning activities based on project requirements
- Consistent quality standards company wide
- Accountability during installation
- Development and implementation of test procedures, including factory witness testing, receiving and installation verification, pre-functionality of system, functionality of system and integration
- Manage 3rd party testing agencies, such as the National Electrical Testing Association (NETA)
- Assistance during closeout of projects and documentation review
- Customer training, operation and maintenance requirements
- Ongoing support of clients during operation
Thorough commissioning also builds relationships with customers and project owners by reducing errors, providing ongoing issue tracking and resolution and reducing equipment failure rates. It creates a smooth turnover and transfer of ownership, leading to fewer callbacks. Owners and occupants receive and work in an environment that is tested and validated to be safe, healthy, comfortable, reliable, resilient and as efficient as possible.
During National Engineers Week, we recognize the Faith Technologies engineering teams throughout the organization. The work they do each day helps us deliver on our core purpose of creating world-class opportunities to succeed.
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