Holistic commissioning management (HCxM) for your pharmaceutical plant
The Commissioning Management (CxM) should not begin with the end of MC (Mechanical Completion) of your process plant in the pharmaceutical & biotech, petrochemical, power and water treatment industries.
A holistic commissioning management (HCxM) already starts in the planning phase of a process plant.
Ideally, the later commissioning manager is already involved in the planning of the plant systems.
For example, expensive, subsequent modifications – which are necessary for correct commissioning – can already be taken into account in the planning phase.
The commissioning manager can also give the planning team valuable information from his wealth of commissioning experience, which can avoid large, unexpected costs during commissioning and tech batch operation.
Depending on the industry, the commissioning costs for a new process plant are between 8 and 15% of the investment amount.
Thanks to the holistic and cross-trade commissioning management of the commissioning experts at Swiss Commissioning GmbH, these costs – and also the duration of commissioning – can be reduced considerably.
Further advantages of the holistic commissioning management are minimized project risks, a faster start of production with a permanently high product quality, and that the user team feels “picked up”.
The commissioning managers at Swiss Commissioning GmbH are not only technically versed in commissioning of process plants, but are also characterized by a high level of social and emotional competence.
Why is a high level of social and emotional competence important?
We would like to illustrate this using the example of a real world situation during the commissioning of a pharmaceutical plant.
Our commissioning specialist acted as the “right hand” (commissioning coordinator) of the commissioning manager on the customer side in this project. The start-up of the pharmaceutical plant was so advanced that we needed nitrogen in pharmaceutical quality for the freeze dryers for the next commissioning step. The nitrogen had already been delivered a few days earlier and was in the storage tank. The connecting pipes to the freeze dryers of the pharmaceutical plant were checked and ready for use. So nothing stood in the way of the first test of the freeze dryers the next day … or was it?
Our Cx Coordinator asked the Cx Manager: “Karl (name changed), can we turn on the nitrogen for the freeze dryers tomorrow?”
Karl said: “Um … not really …”
“Why not?” asked our commissioning coordinator.
“Because the QA has not yet released the nitrogen.” answered Karl.
“Well, then we should speak to the QA department.”
“Um … yo.”
10 seconds of silence.
“Karl, do you think I should speak to the QA chief?”
“Yes that would be good.”
“OK.”
Note: The commissioning manager and the head of the QA department are employed by the same pharmaceutical company.
Immediately after this conversation, our Cx Coordinator called the head of the QA department and arranged an appointment for the same day. First of all, the QA boss poured his heart out to our commissioning coordinator that the project team and the commissioning manager were not communicating with him. Our Cx coordinator listened patiently and actively. Then he spoke to the QA department head with a lot of empathy and at eye level.
What was the result? Within a day, the pharmaceutical nitrogen in the tank was released by the QA department and we were able to continue commissioning of the freeze dryers.
Swiss Commissioning GmbH stands for holistic commissioning management – technically versed, with social and emotional competence.
Have we aroused your interest in holistic commissioning management?
Then call us on +41 (41) 511 2000 or send us a message using the contact form.
PS: You can find explanations of abbreviations and technical terms used in commissioning in our commissioning glossary on Inbetriebnahme.eu.