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CPGs and OEMs Reveal Tips for Conducting Successful Virtual FATs

The Checklist is important but allow the process the extra time needed in a virtual setting.

At PMMI panel, new OpX work product, the virtual FAT, is introduced.
At PMMI panel, new OpX work product, the virtual FAT, is introduced.

The OpX work product, the Factory Acceptance Test (FAT), is critical to verifying equipment operability prior to leaving the supplier’s factory. Now this test can be run digitally to conform with COVID-19 regulations as the virtual FATs (vFAT), which was released earlier this summer.

Ways to run more effective and efficient vFATs include: using the vFAT checklist, planning a proper timetable, using pre-FATs and Site Acceptance Testing (SAT), having an OEM employee put themselves into the mindset of the CPG, involving experts that usually would not attend an in-person FAT, making additional efforts to involve all those attending the vFAT, and ensuring the right audiovisual technology is in place.

The vFAT checklist

One element of the FAT is the checklist, designed as a framework for the planning, criteria, and testing of equipment. On the OpX website, it is an easy-to-access download to ensure everyone has access.

At the panel held by PMMI, The Association for Packaging and Processing Technologies, on the vFAT OpX work product early this Fall, all the panelists agree that the checklist is an important key in the FAT process.

It should be introduced early on, even before the Request for Proposal (RFP)–which provides a common, systematic thought process to enable clarity and understanding of capital project requirements–so that all parties are aware of equipment requirements and expectations and can refer back to the checklist as internal documentation during the building process.


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It can also be used to validate the equipment performance for a Site Acceptance Test (SAT) process which takes place at the user’s site before installation as a continuation of functionality verification.

This way, several conversations can follow about how best to approach and plan for technical difficulties and create a timetable–which usually has to double the time that an in-person FAT would take.

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