Without a doubt the "hardest" job I had was down to not being able to make changes to the code while the system is running. I'll not name and shame that particular manufacturer.
So my commissioning days were spent thus....
1. Leave home at 06:00 to be on-site for 07:00 start-up (dictated by the customer because of 4 below).
2. Spend all day from 07:00 to 17:30 "observing" and planning any changes that were needed.
3. At 17:30 operators would initiate CIP routines, and "do an Elvis".
4. After the last CIP finished at 21:30, I was free to make any modifications that were needed. Mostly these were trivial, but needed doing, but occasionally it took an hour or two. Download the modified code (unable to test it, no-one there to run the plant).
5. Save, and hit the road, picking up a take-away on the way. Usually got home around 23:00, bed for 00:00
6. Back to 1.
To be fair, in the three weeks this went on, I did very little actual work... but it was an incredibly hard time.
So my commissioning days were spent thus....
1. Leave home at 06:00 to be on-site for 07:00 start-up (dictated by the customer because of 4 below).
2. Spend all day from 07:00 to 17:30 "observing" and planning any changes that were needed.
3. At 17:30 operators would initiate CIP routines, and "do an Elvis".
4. After the last CIP finished at 21:30, I was free to make any modifications that were needed. Mostly these were trivial, but needed doing, but occasionally it took an hour or two. Download the modified code (unable to test it, no-one there to run the plant).
5. Save, and hit the road, picking up a take-away on the way. Usually got home around 23:00, bed for 00:00
6. Back to 1.
To be fair, in the three weeks this went on, I did very little actual work... but it was an incredibly hard time.