Supervised installation and commissioning: what to prepare

Supervised installation is when engineers of the manufacturing plant come to direct the installation, while a local crew does the physical work: yours or a hired one. The engineer shows how to set things up, checks alignment and connections, and signs off each stage. Commissioning follows installation: adjustment, trial runs idle and under load, bringing the line to its working mode. The engineers come to work, not to wait. So before they arrive, the buyer prepares the site: foundation, power, water, lifting equipment, people and raw material for the trial run.

Three jobs that are often confused

Why supervised installation and not a turnkey installation by the plant? Bringing a crew of installers from China is expensive and complicated. Local installers, welders and electricians exist. What is lacking is knowledge of the specific machine, and the plant's engineer brings it.

Why is supervised installation better than assembling it yourselves from the manual? Because of the warranty. If a unit fails after installation done without the plant, a dispute begins: manufacturing defect or assembly error. When the assembly was accepted by the plant's engineer, there is nothing to argue about.

Who comes

The team depends on the equipment. For a line, a mechanic and an automation commissioning engineer are usually needed; for a complex production, also a process engineer who brings the process to the product. For a boiler, a specialist in boiler equipment and combustion. How many people and for how long is written in the contract for the specific line. There is no general number.

What the buyer prepares

This is the main list in the article. Every missed item means engineers on site with nothing to do.

Site and civil works

• foundations and embedded parts to the plant's drawings, with the concrete cured;
• openings, workshop height, routes for bringing in large units;
• a covered place for unloading and storing the units.

Power and utilities

• electrical supply of the required voltage and capacity, cable to the control cabinets;
• water, compressed air, steam, gas or fuel, whatever the equipment requires;
• drainage, ventilation, a flue for the boiler.

Equipment and tools

• a crane or loader of the required capacity, slings;
• welding stations, alignment tools;
• oils and lubricants per the plant's chart, if they are not supplied with the equipment.

People

• the installation crew, welders, electricians;
• the operators who will be trained to run the line;
• an interpreter who understands technical terms, not just everyday speech.

For the trial run

• raw material in the volume set for the trial runs;
• an agreement on where the trial output will go.

Permits

Equipment under supervision, such as boilers, needs separate permits before start-up. This is its own procedure, and it is started in advance, in parallel with installation.

What to put in the contract

• supervised installation and commissioning are included in the supply or paid separately;
• how many specialists, of which specialty, for how long;
• who arranges the invitation, entry and stay of the foreign specialists;
• who pays for travel, accommodation, meals and local transport;
• what counts as site readiness and what happens if the engineers wait through no fault of the plant;
• which parameters must be reached at start-up and how they are measured;
• staff training: who is trained and in what.

The entry and work of foreign specialists in Uzbekistan are governed by their own rules. Check them in advance for the specific visit: the date the engineers can travel depends on them.

What the commissioning certificate records

Commissioning ends with a commissioning certificate. It usually records:

• that the equipment has been installed and checked;
• which trial runs were carried out and which parameters were reached;
• remarks and who corrects them;
• that the staff have been trained;
• which documents were handed over: passports, diagrams, controller programs, the spare parts list.

The warranty is often counted from this certificate, if the contract says so. More in the article on the warranty on equipment.

Get a copy of the controller programs before the engineers leave. Without them, any replacement of a PLC or panel becomes a separate task.

How we do it

• Supervised installation and start-up are carried out by the manufacturing plant. We arrange the visit of its engineers, translation and site access.
• We agree the price, tolerances, warranty and terms with the plant in writing, before production. The contract is with the manufacturing plant.
• The acceptance report at your warehouse closes the delivery. A defect recorded in the report gets replaced: the contract obliges the manufacturing plant to supply a replacement.