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Once commissioning and testing have been completed and any outstanding issues have been resolved to the satisfaction of the organisation, the plant is ready to hand over to the operations and maintenance departments for ongoing operation and maintenance.
It is useful to think of the handover phase as being divided into three sections with the following focus.
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Lead-up to the handover.
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Handover.
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Handover follow-up.
Lead-up to the handover
The actual handover should be preceded by appropriate training of operating and maintenance staff who will operate and service the equipment initially. Those chosen for the handover should be capable staff with experience in problem solving and who are not intimidated by the potential problems they might encounter. Responsibility for the initial operating shifts and maintenance backup teams should be assignment to clearly identified individuals and/or teams who have received appropriate training and who are prepared for the changed conditions and increased responsibility associated with the handover phase.
Operations raw materials and consumables should be on hand well before the handover to allow operators to become familiar with any new materials and their associated hazards and Material Safety Data Sheets. It is likely that blockages and other settling in problems will occur in the initial days of the new plant and extra consumables such as filters, cleaning materials etc. should be on hand to cater for this contingency.
Similarly, maintenance spare parts should be available in sufficient quantities to support any likely start-up problems and where possible, manufacturer support should be arranged for the early stages especially. Having the manufacturers available when needed will reduce the start-up time, reduce the likelihood of equipment damage, reduce any disputes over warranty or equipment problems and facilitate training for both operations and maintenance staff.
The level of pre-handover preparation will depend on the complexity of the plant and the degree to which the new plant differs from that which the operations and maintenance staff are familiar. In any event it is not appropriate to simply hand the plant over to staff after commissioning and testing and hope they muddle through eventually.
Handover
The actual handover in most cases is a milestone rather than a major event and serves to clearly mark the day/time at which responsibility is transferred from the projects group to the operations group. The main advantage of having a formal handover is that it clearly signifies when responsibility is transferred and forces the projects team to meet the design standards for the plant and prevents the operations group from delaying handover for trivial reasons.
Handover follow-up
Following the formal handover of the plant from the projects group to the operations group, there will be a finite period when the support required by both operations and maintenance will be higher than will be the case when the plant has been operating for some time and has settled in to routine operation. Access to the project engineers and specialists and the equipment manufacturers is vital during this period as any operating and maintenance problems become apparent which might require skills not yet available in the operations or maintenance groups.
Over time, the plant can be expected to settle into a steady operating state as any early problems are sorted out and staff learn how to get the plant to operate in a sustainable way. The transition from the post handover period to normal running will in most cases be gradual and may not necessarily be marked by any clearly definable operating performance change or other noticeable boundary.
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