Inspection and Test Plan Why ?

 

The inspection and test plan article provides you with information about inspections and tests which are used in manufacturing shops, Installation to Commissioning Activities for all fields. Specific information about inspection and test plans for each equipment type.

The working process starts with an agreement between the purchaser and the manufacturer. The manufacturer provides the Proforma Invoice (PI) to the purchaser, which explains the equipment specification and related price.

Then the purchaser issues the Purchase Order (PO), which confirms the proforma invoice. Before the start of manufacturing, the purchaser must provide an equipment inspection and a test plan (ITP) to the manufacturer.

The ITP identifies all inspection points for the purchaser's inspector. Then the manufacturer needs to prepare the project quality control plan based on this inspection and test plan.

The manufacturer notifies the purchaser's inspector in advance to attend the factory for witnessing the inspections and tests.

The communication and coordination channels between the manufacturer, purchaser inspector and purchaser are agreed to in the Pre-inspection meeting (PIM).

Based on international practice, the manufacturer sends a notification to the purchaser, and the purchaser reviews the notification, and after approval sends it to the inspector.

Then the inspector will go to the manufacturer's shop to witness the test or inspection.

The purchaser's inspector will send the inspection visit report to the purchaser.

The Purchaser can assign its own inspector, which is its direct employee or hire a third-party inspection agency to carry out the inspection.

The ITP has a tabular format and the content extracted from the construction code. In each row of the table, there is quality control and inspection requirement and this determines which party is responsible for control and inspection.

There are three parties in the ITP, the Manufacturer, the Third Party Inspector (TPI) and the Client or purchaser. Normally, the table accommodates 3 sections as follows:

• Before Manufacturing
• During Manufacturing
• Final Inspection

The before Manufacturing section consists of the Pre-Inspection Meeting (PIM) and review of the quality control documents that need to be approved before start of manufacturing.

There are 3 or 4 important terminologies in the ITP that determines the responsibility of each party. These are:

Hold point(H): Hold on the production till TPI Inspector performs inspection and supervises the required test. In general, attendance to the PIM meeting, raw material inspection and identification, Post Weld Heat Treatment Review, Hydrostatic Test, Performance Test, Run-Out Test and Final Inspection are Hold points. Normally, manufactures shall notify the TPI Inspector 7 working days in advance.

Witness Point (W): The manufacturer shall notify the client and TPI Inspector, but there is no hold on the production. The client can waive this inspection based on its discretion and inform the TPI Inspector.

Spot Witness (SW): for items with spot witness, the manufacturer shall notify the TPI inspector as fulfilling the monitoring. For example one random visit for all of the UT Tests or one or two visits for whole surface preparation work for painting.

Review (R): Review means Review document, which includes the review of quality control records, test reports, etc. When the TPI Inspector makes a visit for a hold or witness point, the inspector can review the related documents.

Here are the articles about the different equipment ITPs. You can download the draft ITP for each type of equipment through the following Legends:

1) ‘Prepared by’ should be the name, signature and Company’s name for the Vendor’s/Sub Contractor’s representative.

(2) ‘Approved by’ should be the name, signature and Company’s name for the Contractor’s representative.

(3) ‘Location’, ‘Item Name’ and ‘Tag Number’ shall be used if applicable.

(4) ‘Characteristics Verified’ are the parameters checked during the inspection activity.

(5) ‘Reference Document’ is the Project Specification / Code / Standard / Drawing, Procedure etc on the basis of which inspection shall be conducted.

(6) ‘Acceptance Criteria’ is the tolerance, reading, value or outcome derived from reference documents.

(7) “Verifying Document’ is the record generated during inspection & Testing using approved forms/checklists. All forms and checklists shall be attached to the ITP and submitted to the Company during the approval Stage.

(8) “Inspection Responsibility’ is the role of Vendor / Sub Contractor, Contractor and Company for each inspection step. Inspection responsibility shall be ‘I’ for Inspection,

‘R’ for review, ‘A’ for approval, ‘S’ for Surveillance, “W1’ for 100% Witness, ‘W2’ for random witness and ‘H’ for hold. For the explanation of these inspection, responsibilities refer to the ‘definitions’ part of PEI section 4.7.1

Prepared by M.Ajmal Khan.