Foreword
Several documents are used to organise inspection and testing activities in Quality Control, Commissioning and Operations workflows. To ensure an effective information sharing, each type of document must be structured in accordance with the industry's guidelines and include the appropriate information for the expected purpose and audience.
Disclaimer:
This guide is an overview document aimed at providing the reader with an understanding of the general principles applicable to the subjects listed in the content section below. None of the information provided in this guide is to be seen as a professional advice. Project specific guidelines and specifications must be established by licensed professionals, based on the process and equipment specificities and manufacturers' requirements. The manufacturer's guideline provided in the shop drawings, specifications and manuals always take precedence on the information provided here. SynQ Consulting will not accept any claim of responsibility and will not be held responsible for personal damages and/or material damages and/or liquidated damages and/or any other kind of damage resulting from the use of this guidelines. The reader acknowledges that decisions taken based on the information contained in this guideline remain his/her entire responsibility. The reader recognizes that all specifications, procedures, and activities must meet applicable local laws and codes, the manufacturers' recommendations and be approved by a licensed professional.
The following guide will focus on five documents:
- Management Plan
- Inspection and Test Plan
- Procedure
- Work Instruction
- Inspection and Test Report
Those documents roughly integrate vertically. Therefore, the complete functional plan will be a collection of itself and the lower levels documents as appendixes. However, when taken alone, each document shall be descriptive enough to allow the target audience to understand what is expected from them and to easily retrieve lower levels documents references when needed.
Moreover, all the documents must be tailored to the project's particular characteristics. By the own nature of a project, none of the documents can be readily reused from one project to another without prior review and adjustments to meet the specifics of the project.
Management Plan
It is the higher-level document, which describe the intended processes that will lead to the proficient realisation of the greater objectives of the project or project's functional division. This document focuses on the management level and should cover all of the project management process groups:
Initiating
This section of the Management Plan shall describe the scope of work in relation to the context of the project and the contractual requirements. It should be a serious analysis of the kind of objectives and people having interest in the project (stakeholders and their expectations).
It is also the right time to investigate the risks and how they can be mitigated. A SWOT analysis may also help in this assessment by shedding light on the project's threats and opportunities as well as the organisation's strengths and weaknesses.
This is without a doubt the most important section of the management plan as all other section will be tweaked on the findings of this section.
Tools
- Contract review
- Risk analysis
- SWOT analysis
- Fishbone (Ishikawa) diagram
Planning
This section of the Management Plan shall describe all the planning processes, such as the:
- Scope of work;
- Schedule;
- Organisation chart;
- Roles and responsibilities;
- General communication channels;
- Documents sorting and retention;
Tools
- Diagrams and P&ID mapping
- Databases
- Gantt chart and network diagrams
- Flow diagram
Execution
This section of the Management Plan shall describe all the execution processes:
- HS&E management;
- Risk management;
- LO/TO;
- Work permits management;
- Timeline of the different activities;
- Description of the activities;
- Documentation transfer;
- Material management;
- Management of changes;
- Management of non-conformities;
Tools
- BIM
- Flow diagram
Control
This section of the Management Plan shall describe all the control processes
- Progress tracking;
- Auditing and review;
- Milestones and/or stage gates review;
- Data management
Tools
- Databases
- Online forms
- BIM
- Kanban
- Barcodes
- Surveys and audits
Closing
This section of the Management Plan shall describe all the closing processes
- Final documentation;
- Lessons learned;
Tools
- Databases
- CMS
- Surveys and brainstorming
Inspection and Test Plan
The inspections and tests plan is a specific list of all the activities required to execute the compliance verification of the scope of work. It may, and will most likely, not cover the whole scope of work as other non compliance related activities will be part of the Management Plan.
A proper Inspection and Test Plan will answer the following five questions for each listed activity:
- WHAT must be performed? Cold align a pump's coupling,
- WHY it must be performed? Because specification A article 1 and manufacturer's instructions require it,
- HOW this must be performed? By following procedure P-01,
- WHEN must it be performed? On each split shaft horizontal pump, prior to initial start-up,
- WHERE are the results recorded? On the report ITR-P-01
It is important to understand that the activities related to the Inspection and Test Plan are not initially equipment specific activities. For example, an activity called "Pump alignment" will be one item of the Inspection and Test Plan but will be applicable to all horizontal pumps equipped with a coupling.
Regarding the previous example, it is what we generally find within most Inspection and Test Plan. However, to lean the documentation requirement, we usually suggest making each activity very specific regarding the type of equipment it is related to. That way, one procedure will have a wider spectrum of application. Instead of "Pump alignment", we would label the activity "Coupling alignment" and the same procedure would apply to coupled pumps as well as any other rotating equipment fitted with a coupling. From the previous example, it becomes clear that a procedure may apply to several items of the Inspection and Test Plan.
Once the Inspection and Test Plan is agreed by all parties, we strongly suggest creating a new matrix where ITP's activities are assigned to each piece of equipment, thus giving a better overview of the scope of work and greatly facilitating the tracking of the progress.
Procedure
Often, procedures are confused with work instruction. A procedure is a higher-level document explaining how to realize an activity, regardless of the specific parameters and expected results. A procedure is never specific to one activity, but rather applicable to several activities of the same nature. Simply put, when fed with an activity's specific parameters, a procedure should quite naturally channel to a work instruction.
For instance, an oversimplified bolt torquing procedure would read: Using the correct tool according to table-1, tighten the nut clockwise until the specified torque is displayed on the tool's indicator.
When fed with specific parameters for given bolt-up requiring 90 ft-lb of torque, this procedure would produce the following work instruction: Using a torque wrench, tighten the nut clockwise until the dial on the wrench indicator reads 90 ft-lb.
Obviously, in this rather simple case, a tabulated list of bolts and required torque values would probably be sufficient.
A procedure should always answer the following questions:
- What is the objective of the procedure
- What is the scope of the procedure and / or the exclusions
- The definition of all nonobvious terms and concepts
- General health, safety, and environmental assessment
- Specific functional responsibilities
- Planning requirements
- Predecessors and successors integration
- Required authorizations and licensing
- Required inspections
- Required material.
- References to applicable Work Instruction
- General execution instructions
- Expected reporting and/or documentation
Functional communication channels and in-depth instructions of management tools or software must be explained in detail within the procedure.
In the rare instance when a procedure applies to only one equipment, it is better not to break the structure and still produce one procedure and one work instruction.
Work Instruction
A work instruction is a procedure tailored for a specific equipment, make, and model. In addition to listing the exact parameters of this equipment, the work instruction will focus on the specific risks associated with this equipment, the step-by-step operations, specific features of this equipment, exact tools required, etc. The key is to be specific and error proof while being simple and clear. Contrary to general belief, work instructions are not intended to explain the rules of the art or to replace proficiency gained from training and experience. It is rather aimed at establishing a sequence of steps to perform to ensure that nothing is forgotten or overruled. In general, efficient work instructions will include pictures and/or animations.
One special type of work instruction is called a "Test Package". It is a fine planning of a specific test involving several equipment at once, like hydrotesting a network of pipes and equipment or testing the functionality of a process system. As a small project in the project, the Test Package will include:
- A readiness checklist.
- A list of reports (ITR) showing compliance and readiness for the test.
- A drawing showing the location of the testing apparatus and temporary equipment.
- A punch list of the elements to remove and/or to reinstate after the test.
- A mapping of the test's scope and limits.
- The test parameters.
- A test report.
Inspection and Test Report
An Inspection and Test Record (ITR) is the outcome of an Inspection or test activity. From a standardized form to a collection of documents, the exact format and content of an ITR shall be defined in the procedure associated with the activity.
The ITR allows for the retention of all the activity's parameters, references, and evidence of the results. Whenever possible, objective evidence shall be preferred to subjective assessment.
ITR must not be confused with a checklist, which is a "memory jogger" rather than an account of results. A typical example of a checklist is found in aviation when the pilots crosscheck dials and displays in a sequential manner prior and/or after specified flight's milestones. Checklists are also part of the procedure and are generally aimed at double-checking activities readiness.