Industrial Quality Control

The Industrial Quality Control article provides you with information about vendors and construction contractors quality control systems, manuals, plans, forms and their basic requirements.

Definition of Industrial Quality Control

The quality control refers to all activities that are done by manufacturers and construction contractors to meet the requirement of specific codes and standards. The quality control personnel are direct employees of the manufacturers and construction contractors and using the word inspector for a manufacturer or construction contractor employee is not correct.

The inspector is the person assigned by the buyer who attends the manufacturer's shop for specific orders or purchases to witness some of the tests and examinations.

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In the same way, the inspector is the person assigned by the plant owner to inspect and witness the required tests at construction site.

The quality control system for vendors covers all activities such as material control, design control, fabrication, examination, control of packing and marking, control of loading and dispatch to the construction site.

Similarly, quality control systems for construction contractors on-site covers all activities such as incoming material control, quality control in different construction steps, examinations and testing, maintaining quality records, etc.

Industrail Quality Control Manual

The manufacturer needs to implement a quality control system and describe the system through their quality control manual. This manual needs to cover authority and responsibility, organization, design calculation and drawing, material control, examination and inspection program, correction of non-conformities, manufacturing, codes and standards required examinations and tests, calibration of measuring Tools, Record Retention and sample forms. For more details review the Vendor Quality Control Manual article

The quality control manual for each equipment or material manufacture provides its quality control description, an overview of the quality control concepts and the quality control steps in their production shop.

Industrial Quality Control

Industrial Quality Control Plan

The vendor or manufacturer's quality control manual is different from the quality control plan. The manual refers to the manufacturer's quality control system and is a comprehensive document that addresses everything regarding quality.

But the quality control plan refers to a specific purchase order and identifies all inspections and test points that need to be covered in the manufacturing process of the equipment or material. For more details, review the Quality Control Plan article.

Industrial Quality Control Manual for Contractors

The quality control manual for contractors refers to the quality control systems of construction contractors. This manual is not referring to specific projects and must identify responsibilities and authorities, incoming material control, the examination and inspection program, correction of non-conformities, construction, codes and standards required examinations and Tests, calibration of measuring tools, record retention and sample forms. For more details, review the Quality Control Manual for Contractors article.

Construction Contractor Industrial Quality Control Plan

The construction contractor quality control plan refers to the all quality control activities that are done in industrial plant construction, and covers all fields such as civil, mechanical, electrical and instrumentation. This plan normally is in a table form, and each activity needs its own quality control forms. For more information, review the Construction Contractor Quality Control Plan article.

Industrial Quality Control for Inspection and Quality Control Services

Quality Control Inspection

Inspection and quality control services are a completely different subject. As explained above, quality control refers to the vendors, construction contractors, engineering companies, and inspection refers to the third party inspection agencies or end-user's own inspector.

When the end-user is using its own inspector, it would be a second party inspector. Third party inspection companies sometimes provide quality control services to engineering companies.

But please note: sometimes the end-user introduces the short list of third party inspection companies and mandates the engineering companies to make an agreement with one of them. In this case, the Inspection Company would play the role of a third party inspection agency, because the end-user does not designate another inspection company.

Industrial Quality Control for Quality Control Consulting Company

Sometimes vendors, construction contractors and engineering companies use the services from quality control consulting companies, but they do the quality control activities directly by themselves. They normally get these services from third party inspection agencies.

Industrial Quality Control for Quality Control for Manufacturing

Quality control for manufacturing refers to all activities that are done by vendors based on an approved inspection and test plan. When the vendors receive the customer inspection and test plan, then they would prepare and submit their quality control plan, which is necessary to meet the inspection and test plan.

Then the vendor would use their specific forms to record all quality control activities. Finally, these records would be endorsed by a third party inspector and would be part of a final book.

Industrial Quality Control for Quality Control Document

The list of quality control document is different from one type of equipment to other. The following items are applied for mechanical equipment generally:

Quality Control Plan, Inspection and test plan, Data Sheets, Approved Drawings, Strength calculation sheets, Material Test Reports, Welding Specification Procedures (WPS), Procedure Qualification Records (PQR), Welding Maps, Welders Qualifications Reports, NDE procedures and records, NDE Personnel qualifications Reports, Heat treatment procedures and records, Calibration Certificates for Test Equipment, Hydrostatic Testing Procedure and Water Quality Document, Special Testing Procedures and records, Quality Control Records such as fit-up, welding, dimension inspection, Preparation and Painting Procedure and records, Pressure Vessel Preservation, Packing and Shipping Procedures and records

To realize the task of the industrial quality control system for each equipment type, review following articles:

There are draft inspection and test plans in each page, you can download the draft sheet and study the industrial quality control task for each type of equipment.

The first column shows the responsibility of the manufacturer's quality control department.