Ask the Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) Expert: Scheduling Assistance
 Asked on | Q | Commissioning of DAC system? I work in a big company and our subcontractor responsible for DAC system design and installation now wants to hand over their work. We are now in the SAT (site acceptance test), so can you tell me about any procedure we can use to test this system?
I'm an electrical engineer and have good experience in instrumentation, but it is my first time commissioning a data acquisition control system. What are the steps I should follow with the subcontractor, and what questions should I ask them? Is there any sequence I should follow for this test? It's a big project consisting of surge protection system and flowmeters (electromagnetic type), control valves, UPS, diesel generators, pumps, PGC, PCU, PPLC, CHEMICAL SYSTEM and interface with other sites with microwave. Can you please help? THANKS VERY MUCH noton notone(2), kuwait, NA |
| A | Noton: The position that you find yourself is not uncommon. This is the one of the reasons standards were created. The standard governing "Automation Systems in the Process Industry for Factory Acceptance Testing (FAT), Site Acceptance Testing (SAT) and Site Integration Testing (SIT)" is IEC 62381. Please visit the link below. You can procure the official standard from the IEC Webstore. This can be used as a standard guideline on what can be used. http://webstore.iec.ch/ http://webstore.iec.ch/preview/info_iec62381%7Bed1.0%7Den.pdf However, there is no set standard for User Acceptance Testing (UAT). UAT does vary depending on the experience of the person/team and what is critical to fitness for intended use. This will have to be derived from the design team inputs and the operations team. One good safeguard is to make sure that either you include the availability of a system engineer or service support engineer through the first 30 or 90 days of the project commissioning, so that there is immediate help at hand and the final payments are released to the vendor after a satisfactory period of successful, trouble-free performance. Quite often, the final payments to the vendor/solution provider is used only after a "performance bond"; i.e., guarantee of system performance is issued by the vendor/solution provider. With best wishes, Sath |
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