Shop Inspection

The shop inspection or vendor inspection article provides you with information about the second party or third party inspection process in ...

The shop inspection or vendor inspection article provides you with information about the second party or third party inspection process in manufacturing shops. This article also provides lots of other links for shop inspection practices for each equipment type.

Assume an oil company orders manufacturing of several pumps from a pump manufacturer.

So there will be a proforma invoice (PI) and a purchase order (PO). The PI is issued by the pump manufacturer, with detailed pump specifications and prices, and at the same time, a PO will be issued by the oil company, which stats its agreement with the specifications, prices, and ordering for the manufacturing of the pumps.

PI and PO are important commercial documents.

Before the start of the manufacturing process, the oil company will agree with the pump manufacturer for the inspection process. Normally, this process will be done based on the agreed upon inspection and test plan.

For more details, review the Inspection and Test Plan article.

In this important document, the inspection “hold” and “witness” points will be determined, and it will be necessary for the pump manufacturer to notify the oil company inspector for such inspection in advance.

Assume the “inspection and test plan” determine 5 inspection points in the manufacturing process, such as material certificate review and identification, casing hydro static testing, impeller balancing, performance test and run-out test.

So when the manufacturer reaches to these points, it must notify the oil company inspector (in advance) to come for the inspection and testing. Finally, if the result of inspection visits were satisfactory, then the inspector will issue the inspection release note.

This oil company has several options to designate an inspector as follows:

• Ordering this inspection from the inspection agency, which is called third party inspection,
• Or dispatching its own competent inspector's shop, which is called second party inspection.
• It might be that there is not a direct contract between the oil company and the manufacturer, and the contract is between the oil company and the engineering company. The engineering company will make a contract with the pump manufacturer, so the engineering company is responsible for the inspection. If the engineering company uses its own inspector, it will be similar to the second party inspector, and if he hires the inspection agency, it will be a third party inspector.

Please note that most of the clients such as this oil company mandate the engineering company to hire a third party inspection agency.

Using the “inspector” wording for the engineering company's personnel and the name of inspection department in the engineering company are not correct. They must be called the and must be quality control department. But some engineering companies call their quality control department an inspection department.

Inspector can only be used for someone who is the purchaser's employee or the purchaser's designated person working in the inspection agency. When the inspection is carried out in the manufacturing shop, it is called shop inspection. The Third Party Shop Inspection article provides you some more supplementary information regarding this subject.

More details about this inspection category and referenced codes and standards are described separately for each equipment type in the following articles:

Shop Inspection for Fix Equipment

Fire Tube Boiler, Shell and Tube Heat Exchanger, Fin Tube Heat Exchanger, Pressure Vessel, Storage Tank, Line Pipe, Valve, Steel Structure, Water Tube Boiler

Shop Inspection for Rotary Equipment

Reciprocating Compressor, Centrifugal Pump, Gas Turbine, Steam Turbine, Fan and Blower, Centrifugal Compressor, Screw Compressor, Centrifugal Pump Performance Test, Centrifugal Compressor Testing, Reciprocating Compressor Testing, Fan Mechanical Running test, Fan Performance Test

Shop Inspection for Electrical Equipment

Generator, Power Transformer, Induction Motor, Control Panel, Bus Duct, UPS Storage Battery, Battery Charger, Power Cable, Switchgear, Gas Circuit Breaker, Electrical Insulator