Practices
The following practical examples illustrate our working methods and your benefits:
Practice: Implementation of Approvals and Certifications
Practice: Adoption of QM-Systems
Practice: Maintenance of QM-Systems
Practice: Review of technical Specifications
Practice: Scope of Welding Procedures
Practice: Requirement-based Production Documentation
Practice: External Welding Supervision
Practice: Assessment of technical Suppliers and Subcontractors
Practice: Review of Material Test Certificates
Practice: Welding Procedure Tests
Practice: Production Supervision and Monitoring
Practice: Material Testing and Product Acceptance
Practice: Implementation of Approvals and Certifications
Situation: A lucrative big order with the prospect of follow-up assignments beckons you. As a prerequisite, however, the client requires a special approval or certification that your company does not yet possess.
Challenge: Opening up new business areas is one of the strategic tasks of successful entrepreneurship. Whether construction products, shipbuilding equipment or pressure vessels - approvals and certifications are always required. But if a new area is to be developed, there is big effort to capture the procedures and the requirements, to implement them into the own systems and to co-ordinate with the certifier. You and your employees are bound by internal activities and can not concentrate on the core business.
Solution: We provide you with the necessary overview so that you can make successful decisions. We record the actual state and reveal existing gaps. Together with you, we are developing solutions to fill these gaps and to be prepared for an audit. If you wish, we recommend you a suitable certifier, compile the application documents and support your specialist in the audit. This relieves the employees and opens up new business opportunities.
You are deliverable. Definitely.
Practice: Adoption of QM-Systems
Situation: For the introduction of a manufacturer qualification, you have bought a sample manual and checklists.
Challenge: There are many sample manuals on the market. Of course you can orient yourself to the standard procedures, but each company handles things differently. Long-established procedures can not be easily changed by a manual. Described procedures must represent your operational reality and should not form a corset of foreign ideas. In audits, an experienced auditor quickly finds out when things are different than your manual describes them. You will receive deviations in the audit, have to improve and possibly cause a suspension of your approval and cost-intensive checks.
Solution: Let us adapt to your workflows. There is not just one way. We record the actual status and discrepancies for documentation. Together with you, we develop solutions for realistically mapping your processes and preparing them for an audit. Your employees remain authentic in the audit and will feel safe in your processes. Deviations are thereby reduced and costly improvements are saved.
You remain viable. Definitely.
Practice: Maintenance of QM-Systems
Situation: You are running an approved welding shop and have introduced a product-related quality management. Changes have been made in your production or a surveillance audit is in progress.
Challenge: Quality management systems are alive. This means that it is not done with the introduction of a system, but it has to be always kept up-to-date. This is the obligation of the senior management. Particularly smaller companies, however, hardly hold staff for such tasks, but do it by the way. Shortly before the ongoing surveillance, the topic gets the highest priority and inhibits regular business operations. Other important tasks remain unsolved.
Solution: Order us to maintain your system. According to your wishes, the actual status is regularly matched with the present process documentation. With you, we develop solutions to constantly be prepared for an audit. We are also happy to keep an eye on the dates for ongoing surveillance for you, compile the application documents and support your specialist in the audit. This relieves you and your employees and gives you the opportunity to do business.
You remain up-dated. Definitely.
Practice: Review of technical Specifications
Situation: Non-destructive testing of an elementary component has resulted in indications. You expect a new delivery from your supplier. This repels your claims on the reason that the indications are permitted by the standard and do not provide sufficient reasons for complainining on the component.
Challenge: Mistakes happens in every production. The components are not always as expected. The discussion then begins with the question of admissibility, expert opinions are prepared, and the time pressure on the delivery date becomes ever greater. The one who bears the costs and delays incurred is often decided before courts. If there are no detailed specifications as contractual conditions, the courts often decide on the basis of minimum requirements from current standards.
Solution: Have your order and product specifications checked by us. From many years of experience in this field, we recognize weaknesses and interpretations. You can implement our comments directly and thus define a clear requirement profile for your supplier. You save yourselves protracted researches in the standards and are prepared in the event of a complaint.
Your expectations are met. Definitely.
Practice: Scope of Welding Procedures
Situation: There is already a variety of different welding procedure tests in your company. However, they are not sufficient for a new project because the dimensions or scope of testing deviate from customer requirements. Therefore, you have to carry out new procedure tests again.
Challenge: Welding procedure testing binds staff and is expensive. It is therefore necessary to cover the widest possible scope with the least number of tests. This is especially true if you work according to different application rules and international standards. Sometimes only one additional test position is missing to fulfill multiple requirements. But, who has the time to compare rules and standards, where the desk is filled with many other tasks?
Solution: We take this time, if you wish. Before each procedure test, we check the pWPS and give decisive indications for an optimized scope for your application. You save valuable time with your personnel and additionally reduce the test costs.
Your resources are spared. Definitely.
Practice: Requirement-based Production Documentation
Situation: Your products are delivered already, but the enclosed documentation is not accepted by the customer. The products can not be installed, but end up blocked in the storage. The customer complains and the compensation of the invoice is delayed.
Challenge: Production documentation is often part of the scope of delivery. Without this, you will not get any money from the customer and endanger your existence. But which documents are necessary and which are not? The entire existing paper is often collected and your employees are taken over for an extended period of time.
Solution: Join us at the beginning of the project phase. We determine and structure the necessary documentation. If you wish, we assemble the documentation until delivery, thus relieving your employees and ensuring the completeness of the delivery.
Your documentation meets customer requirements. Definitely.
Practice: External Welding Supervision
Situation: You open up a new production site or relocate parts of your production. Now you need suitable welding supervisors at short notice.
Challenge: Finding suitable personnel is difficult for every company. Your candidate is not yet found or available in a few weeks or months. Typically, your welding supervision will now be entrusted with additional tasks. However, a new production always involves a great deal of time. The double load often leads to losing sight of other important tasks.
Solution: Get support from us. We would like to temporarily take over the external welding supervision at your new location or in your main plant. You can take care of your desired candidate.
Your welding supervision is guaranteed. Definitely.
Practice: Assessment of technical Suppliers and Subcontractors
Situation: You purchase components from suppliers or make components in subcontracting.
Challenge: Since you are responsible for your product as a manufacturer, outsourced manufacturing is also your responsibility. Supplier and subcontractors are therefore subject to a supplier assessment. Common ratings often refer to delivery reliability and price. This is easy to do at the office. But what about the technical side? Visits to the manufacturing of the supplier and auditing of production and quality measures require time and tie up your professional staff. Nevertheless, it is necessary to know how a product is manufactured in order to ultimately bear the responsibility.
Solution: Our Services for Supplier Assessment: The audit and evaluation of production processes, production facilities and quality assurance measures has been our focus for more than a decade. Whether evaluations of process tests used, interface analyzes or the attendance first article inspections of your supplier. We take care of this. You remain flexible and can use your personnel for your production.
Your subcontractors are under control. Definitely.
Practice: Review of Material Test Certificates
Situation: Inspection documents are required in many regulations. Test certificates are described in ISO 10474 and EN 10204 respectively. You order your materials, eg with an inspection certificate 3.1.
Challenge: The product standards provide a wide range of options for testing scope. The certificate 3.1 describes only the nature of the certificate but does not specify the content of the certificate or the scope of the test. In addition to the presence of the certificate, your employees must also check the correct content as part of the incoming goods inspection. This means extra time.
Solution: Our services for Material Test Certificates: The review of the contents of a test certificate and the comparison against the application rules ensure the acceptance by inspectors and customers. We check the documentation of your supplier's products even before delivery. This is how you unload only adequately certified products from the truck and save yourself the expenses of a subsequent complaint at the supplier.
Your production remains on schedule. Definitely.
Practice: Welding Procedure Tests
Situation: Documented welding procedures are explicitly described in current application rules. Your customer requires proof of the necessary welding procedure qualification tests or pre-production welding tests within the framework of the award procedure.
Challenge: As a manufacturer you are responsible for compliance with the requirements. You need a test laboratory and an independent body to certify the test results. This requires work on the coordination of the necessary dates and test assignments. Frequently, this also involves the long processing time of the inspection bodies and the associated effort to compile the required documentation in a timely manner.
Solution: Our Procedure Testing Service: Please contact us for the date of welding the test pieces in your company. We'll do the rest. Sampling, monitoring, mechanical-technological tests in accredited laboratories and certification of the results are included in the package. We are also happy to assist you in your preferred laboratory. Your welding supervisor will receive a short-term proof of the suitability of the welding procedures and you can participate in invitations to tender in good time.
Your competitiveness will be maintained. Definitely.
Practice: Production Supervision and Monitoring
Situation: You procure complex assemblies with extensive technical specifications from an external supplier. Due to the importance of the product you need certainty about the correct execution.
Challenge: Depending on the complexity, the production process requires a permanent or periodic presence of your technical experts. But your human resources are limited. In the absence of the expert, other important work will remain in your office.
Solution: We accompany or supervise the production at the supplier. You will receive a regular report on the construction progress. Your requirements will be met. We accept deviations with the supplier and agree on possible solutions with you. We accept repairs proposals and comment on request. For you, it means that you are always up to date without having to make available your own staff. Your employees can focus on core tasks and important decisions.
Your interests are preserved. Definitely.
Practice: Material Testing and Product Acceptance
Situation: Your customer requests external test certificates for the products supplied to you in the production documentation. You order the products with the appropriate acceptance tests from your supplier.
Challenge: The supplier commissions the inspection organization and becomes their primary customer. There is generally no customer relationship between you and the inspection organization. The acceptance modalities are coordinated between suppliers and inspectors. On the other hand, direct assignments are cumbersome for you, as commissioning is often done with the regional inspection offices. Particularly with several suppliers to different locations, especially internationally, direct assignments are time-consuming and bind your personnel resources.
Solution: Assign us to the coordination of acceptance and test tasks. For you this does not mean a time-consuming effort and you get a single contact person. With your mandate, you will have direct access to the inspection organization and thus influence the acceptance strategy. We would be pleased to recommend the inspection or testing organization that suits you.
Your interests are preserved. Definitely.