Planning and reality of the final verification and on-site assembly of KMOS for the VLT

The K band Multi Object Spectrograph (KMOS) instrument underwent its final European verification in the early part of 2012. It was then shipped to the Paranal Observatory where it was re-assembled, retested and then installed on one of the European Southern Observatory’s (ESO) Very Large Telescope (VLT) unit telescopes ready for final commissioning tests at the end of 2012. The whole process required meticulous planning in order to minimise the risk of problems at Paranal and the associated disruption to the observatory operations. This paper discusses the planning process and compares what actually happened against the plans. The process was smooth and some reasons for this success are explored.