Over the past few years American Testing Services has taken steps to improve quality and customer satisfaction by creating a receiving inspection and contract review process for all incoming orders.  During a receiving inspection, all quantities, part numbers, and serial numbers are verified.  Any possible damage and any packaging concerns are also noted.  The contract review step verifies that all of the required information, specifications, acceptances, drawings with the latest revision, and purchase order contracts are accurate prior to releasing any orders for inspection processing.  If discrepancies are found in either process, the work isn’t even staged for inspection until issues are resolved.

One issue we’re seeing more and more often is the lack of part drawings.  Most of the time, part drawings have information related to the inspection work that we require.  It’s usually found in the drawing notes.  Some drawings have inspection acceptance tables specific to that part, and the drawing is the only place to find it.  If a new revision is issued and is spelled out on a purchase order contract, the revised drawing needs to be provided for review and retention for everyone’s protection.

We know from experience that NDT is usually one of the last processes a part receives prior to shipment, so receiving rush jobs is a daily event at ATS.  This also seems to be when the window for error is left wide open, allowing some of the little things to slip right through.  We thought we’d reach out in this newsletter to let everyone know that it is important for us to have part drawings, including the latest revisions, when sending inspection work.  This is one of the little things that helps us expedite your orders through the inspection process and avoid delays.  Sometimes we can actually go faster when we just slow down a little!