What is a Factory Acceptance Test (FAT)?
An inspection of major plant — switchgear, chillers, lifts, generators — carried out at the manufacturer’s works, against the specification, before the equipment ships. You go and watch it being tested. The FAT report then travels with the unit and becomes an attachment to the material inspection when it finally arrives on site.
Why you get on a plane for this
A defect found on the factory floor is fixed by the people who built the unit, with their own tools, on their own bench, with no building around it. The same defect found in a finished plant room is a fundamentally different problem: access is restricted, the manufacturer’s engineer has to fly to you, and the programme is already depending on the equipment working.
That asymmetry is the entire argument. It is the 1-10-100 rule applied to a chiller.
What a FAT actually involves
Verification that the unit built matches the approved submittal — model, rating, configuration, materials. Functional testing against the specified performance. Witnessed tests where the specification requires them, with the client’s or consultant’s representative physically present.
The output is a FAT report, signed, listing what was tested, what passed, and what remains outstanding. Outstanding items get closed before shipment, or explicitly carried with an agreed plan.
And it does not replace the delivery inspection
This trips people up. A successful FAT proves the unit was right when it left the factory. It says nothing about what happened to it in a container for six weeks.
So the FAT report becomes an attachment to the material inspection when the equipment arrives — evidence supporting the gate check, not a substitute for it. Shipping damage is real, and the only place to catch it is at your own gate.
References
- module: /modules/material-inspections/ — factory acceptance testing for long-lead plant
Zepth is the construction project delivery platform — it runs construction, procurement and asset management on one record, and does the work: reading the drawings, reviewing the submittals, matching the invoices and flagging the risks, with a human sign-off on anything consequential.
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