Goods Inspection Services

This article provides you with information about goods inspection services which is provided by third party inspection companies.

This article is a supplementary article for the Goods Inspection article. It is recommend that you first read the goods inspection article, and then come here for supplementary information:

Goods Inspection Services

Finished Goods Inspection Procedure

There is some information in the Finished Goods Inspection article. The detail procedure is different from one type of equipment or material to another. But what is in common are following items:

  • Visual Inspection
  • Dimensional Inspection
  • Quality Control Document Review
  • Quantity Inspection
  • Packing and Marking Inspection
  • Sometimes Loading Inspection

I want to provide an example to explain the procedure. There is a purchase order for 100 line pipes 6 inch ASTM A 106 Gr.B, SCH 60 and 6 meters

The third party inspector would be attended in the supplier warehouse and visually check the pipes for any mechanical damage or imperfection. (The inspection would be done based on referenced standards). The stenciled marking also would be controlled. The placing of protecting caps in both sides of the line pipes would be checked.

The pipe thickness, outside diameter, inside diameter and length would be measured to be in the range of specified tolerances.

The quality control documents, such as material test reports, hydrostatic test reports and NDE test reports would be reviewed and endorsed.

The number of pipes would be counted to meet the purchase order.

Packing and marking of the pipes would be inspected based on the packing and marking procedure, if a procedure is not provided, it would be inspected based international standards or practice. For more information, please see the Seaworthy Packing Procedure article.

If loading is in the scope of work then the third party inspector would be a witness to the safe loading of the pipes to the container and would note the container door seal numbers.

Goods Inspection Report

In the above example, when the inspector completed his/her inspection, he/she would write the goods inspection report and describe all inspection activities and the result of the inspection. For more information about this, please review the Establishment of Inspection Report article.

Certificate of Inspection of Goods

When the third party inspector carries out an inspection and the result are satisfactory, then depending on the purchase order, the inspection certificate for goods are issued by third party inspection agency.

If there is a letter of credit in place and inspection is mandatory for the terms of LC, the inspection certificate needs to be issued after shipment and when the third party inspection agency receives the shipping documents.

If there is no LC between a buyer and seller, or there is an LC but without mandatory requirements for inspection, then the inspection certificate might be issued based on the agreement of the buyer and seller. Sometimes in this case, there is no need for certificate, and an inspection visit report would be enough.

For more information, please review the Certificate of Inspection article.

Goods Inspection Services - Incoming Goods Inspection

The incoming goods inspection is used when there is an agreement between the buyer and seller for having an inspection in the destination country or place. It might be done instead of the preshipment inspection or it may be agreed that inspection is to be done two times i.e. before shipment and when it reaches the buyer.

This terminology is also used by governmental authorities when there is a mandatory rule for incoming goods inspection to their countries' ports and before clearance from customs. These might be applied to some specific goods.

Goods Inspection Process

The process for goods inspection described in other articles in this site and also in this article. Here are the important steps for doing a goods inspection:

  • The purchaser is to determine third party inspection agency
  • Third Party Inspection agency must be introduced to the bank for stating the name of the inspection agency in the Letter of Credit
  • Deliver the purchase document to the third party inspection company such as the proforma invoice, purchase order, letter of credit, purchase technical specifications and inspection and test plan
  • Send the inspection notification to the third party inspection company
  • Carry out inspection
  • Send the inspection report to the purchaser by the third party inspection agency
  • Send shipping document to the third party inspection company
  • Issue the inspection certificate by the third party inspection agency
  • As mentioned in above, if there is no LC, then the formality might be a little bit different.

Goods Inspection Services - Goods Quality Inspection

This refers to the quality of the work. When we say goods inspection, in fact, we talk about quality inspection, quantity inspection, document review, packing inspection, marking inspection and loading inspection.

The quality inspection in the above example is the same we perform for document review, visual inspection and dimensional inspection.

Goods Inspection Services - Goods Inspection in letter of Credit

This applies to the goods inspection, which is done under the terms of letter of credit. For more information, please review the Pre-Shipment Inspection articles.

Goods Inspection Services - Goods Inspection Agreement

This is the agreement signed between the third party inspection agency and the buyer or seller. Sometimes buyers ask the sellers to consider inspection cost in their proforma invoices; in this case, the inspection cost would be paid by sellers.

Based on the inspection scope, the number of days would be determined and the third party inspection agency would be paid based on man-day.

In some cases, the agreement would be made between the buyer and third party inspection agency based on the purchase order value. A percentage would be agreed upon and would be multiplied by the purchase value to obtain the third party inspection agency fees.