Third party inspection is not carried out!!

[gafoorkti]

We have placed an order for the manufacturing and supply of "Chafe Chain Assembly (offshore mooring chain)" with reputed manufacturer in Europe and on behalf of us to look after inspection activities we have appointed third party inspection agency (TPI) as well.

Now, manufacturer completed production and dispatched the item without third party inspection.

Upon enquiring, he finds all kind of excuses and saying that TPI was not contacted them and blame game between manufacturer and TPI has just begun now.

Please advise me on how to resolve this issue. Localy what kind of tests/inspection can I suggest once material is received?

Regards

 

[EdStainless]

Two separate issues, one is quality and the other commercial.On the commercial side it is straight forward. Look at your PO. If you required specific inspection release prior to shipment, and they don't have it, then don't pay. If you didn't clearly require such approval then you can't do much.
On the quality side, at the least your TPI should go in and do a full audit of the manufacture of your item. Review every single production sign off and test, and audit every procedure that is relevant.
As for testing now, there is not much that you can do. Spot tests yes, but verification of quality means knowing that procedures were followed every time at every step.

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Plymouth Tube

 

[metengr]

Unfortunately, you as a the purchaser are taking on significant risk by accepting this material. If this is a commercial issue related to TPI in the PO, and this was not fulfilled you can reject the product because this was not performed. If this requirement was not in the PO, you have little recourse. This is where risk management comes into play and what are the consequences of failure, should it be related to a process quality issue.

Your testing for acceptance of this chain should be based on material verification, surface hardness testing and nondestructive testing as a quality check.

 

[SJones]

Please don't double post. There are also answers in the QC Inspection forum. You should close that thread and point people to this one.

The normal methodology would have been to agree an inspection and test plan with the supplier which would incorporate the necessary inspection activities of the TPI. A pre-manufacturing meeting would then be held where all the communication routes and inspection responsibilities would have been defined and documented between the three parties. It would also be normal to get at least a weekly report of activities from the TPI.

If this was not done, it would suggest that the product does not have a high criticality within your organisation and that you will probably accept it with some form of limited verification testing at site.

Steve Jones
Materials & Corrosion Engineer

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/8/83b/b04

 

[micalbrch]

You wrote that the equipment was made by a reputed manufacturer in Europe which means that you usually should expect the corresponding quality.

As far as third party inspection is concerned the other colleagues explained that already. Make it clear in your purchase documents. Then you have the chance to delay payment which will hurt the manufacturer. On the other hand: What does a third party really check? I attended a few inspections as a manufacturer and I dare to say that 9 out of 10 inspections did not prove quality.

 

[eyec]

micalbrch: inspections do not prove quality, they prove compliance with PO, specifications, standards & codes.

the proof of quality lies with the manufacturer.

tpi are only as good as the reason and @ the process points they are implemented.