1. What is lean?

If you google “lean” you will probably find many definitions of lean. The definition that I prefer is “an initiative focus on eliminating all waste in manufacturing processes”. This definition is taken from the American Society for Quality (ASQ) Quality Progress magazine. In this article I want to highlight a lean initiative related to Inspection and Test (I&T) Requirements.

2. Why do we need inspection and test requirements?

The craftsman of yesteryear quietly inspected their work. The advent of the mass production era led to creation of inspection departments and chief inspector positions. Now things are slightly different. In some industries inspection is considered as a non-value added activity. However, in oil and gas industry and in regulated industries, inspection is the mainstream activity of manufacturing and operations. Inspection is necessary to:

 Guard against delay in project completions due to supply of sub-standard material

 Maintain I&T records to show compliance

 Use as a defense against liability claims

3. What are inspection and test requirements?

a. Inspection and test requirements establishes the criteria for inspectors to accept or reject products during the entire manufacturing process. There are many forms of inspections such as receiving, in-process, final and source inspection. This is not to say that I&T is the only defense to guard against supply of sub-standard material. There are other defenses available as well such as sourcing material from approved suppliers, continual monitoring of suppliers performance, technical & quality review of purchase requisitions prior to placement of purchase orders, and lastly source and receiving inspections.

4. Structure of a typical inspection and test requirement form:

a. Inspection and test requirements are usually derived from company specifications, International standards such as American Petroleum Institute (API), American Society for Mechanical Engineers (ASME), & American Society for Testing of Materials (ASTM) and industry practices. Specifications and standards ensures product quality and enhances safety of products during operation. Typically, inspection and test form for source inspection will have 3 levels of inspection covering from pre-production to final inspection activities. The highest level of inspection is the “witness” inspection. The middle level require to check records (on-site) and the lowest level where supplier is required to provide certificate of conformance. The “witness” inspection is the hold point on the form and the manufacturer cannot proceed to next manufacturing step

Unless the inspection is completed. Inspection and test requirements for critical equipment such as pressure vessels, heat exchangers usually have a combination of witness, check records and review of records while some material such as off the shelf electric motors may only require review of records such as certificate of conformance.

5. Steps in lean inspection and test requirements:

With this background, let’s now discuss how to make I&T requirements lean. Applying lean to I&T is a two steps project consisting of:

a. Simplifying inspection and test requirements:

i. Review of Inspection and test requirements

ii. Integrating revised and improved requirements

iii. Change management

b. Benchmarking

a.i) Review: The first step is to review I&T requirements. Some organizations have a well defined process to regularly review and enhance I&T requirements as changes to company specifications, standards and industry practices are taking place. This prevents use of redundant, conflicting and obsolete I&T requirements. To conduct the review start by assembling a team of subject matter expert. Schedule regular reviews and document results to:

i. Eliminate redundant requirements

ii. Resolve conflicting requirements

iii. Delete superfluous inspection points

Revise I&T requirements based on the successful review and acquire approvals from all concerned subject matter experts.

a.ii) Integration: The next step is to incorporate and integrate approved requirements in the procurement and manufacturing processes. This step will ensure that previous revisions of I&T requirements has been replaced with revised ones.

a.iii) Change management: Once revised requirements are integrated in the system, make sure that all stakeholders such as subject matter experts, inspectors, buyers and suppliers are aware of revisions. This step require a careful change management initiative. Buy-in from all stakeholders through the change management program will ensure the use and success of revised and simplified I&T requirements.

b. Benchmarking: After revised inspection and test requirements are in use for some time, schedule a second review to evaluate the impact of enhancements. If results of the first review indicate substantial improvements the last step in the lean journey of I&T requirements is to benchmark against the industry practice. Results of benchmarking should indicate whether I&T requirements are stringent or equivalent to the industry

practice. Based on the benchmarking study and analysis of results take further actions to simplify and enhance inspection and test requirements.

To summarize, inspection and test activities are main stream of manufacturing processes in oil & gas and regulated industries. However, substantial cost savings can be achieved by applying lean to I&T requirements and in-fact to the entire inspection process (not covered in this post). Having a methodical process to periodically review and continually improve I&T requirements will optimize cost of operations and prevent costly project delays through elimination of:

a. Conflicting requirements that can disrupt manufacturing process

b. Unnecessary witness points that can delay production

c. Obsolete requirements

Afaq (Fayzee) Ahmed is Principal Consultant and Trainer at TORQUE in Irvine, California. His core skill set consists of Operational Excellence design & implementation, Management Systems implementation, Business Performance Improvements, Assessments, and Supply Chain Improvements. He has worked in wide variety of industries (aerospace, automotive and other’s) in US and 15 years for Saudi Aramco. He earned a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. He is a senior member of ASQ, he is also an ASQ-certified manager of quality/organizational excellence, quality engineer and quality auditor, and an Exemplar Global-certified skill examiner and quality management systems lead assessor. He can be reached at thetorqueusa@gmail.com. www.torque-usa.com.