Concept · The inspector's job

Reports, nonconformances and traceability

What a daily inspection report records, how a nonconformance report is closed, and why instrument serial numbers matter.

An inspection report is evidence. It records facts: readings, areas inspected, conditions, materials, and nonconformances. Opinions about people do not belong in it.

The why: memory fails and records last

A dispute about a coating often starts months or years after the work. Blisters appear, and the owner, the contractor and the supplier ask what happened. Nobody remembers the day. The report is then the only witness.

A report helps only if a third person can check it. A reading with no date, place or instrument cannot be checked. A reading with all three can. This is traceability: each result leads back to the day, the place and the instrument that made it.

The daily report

Complete the daily report before you leave the site. A typical report holds these items:

• The date, the location and the weather.
• The climate readings: relative humidity, air temperature, surface temperature and dew point (dew point).
• The work done, with areas and operations.
• The inspections and their results: cleanliness, profile, salts, DFT and adhesion where they apply.
• The batch numbers of the materials.
• The nonconformances raised, with their dispositions.
• The hold and witness points that were covered (hold points).
• Photographs with references, open items, and the name and signature of the inspector.

At the end of the shift, secure the samples and the instruments. Sign the report and send it to the agreed list. Hand over open items to the next inspector. A weekly summary for the client adds the progress by area and the nonconformances raised, closed and open. It also lists the upcoming hold points and any question that needs a decision.

Nonconformance reports (NCR)

When work does not meet the specification, the inspector records it and notifies the parties. The contractor proposes the corrective action, the owner or engineer accepts it, and the inspector verifies it before the NCR is closed.

Two kinds of corrective action exist. Rework brings the work back to full conformity with the specification. A repair leaves a result that does not meet the specification but is fit for purpose, so it needs the owner's concession. The NCR records which kind, the approval and the re-inspection.

A worked scenario: one NCR from start to close-out

1. Discovery. On day 12, the inspector measures the DFT of the primer on a tank roof and finds a group of readings under the specified minimum. She stops the next coat in that area and tells the contractor's supervisor.
2. Record. She raises NCR 007. It names the location on the drawing, the readings, the specification clause and the serial number of the gauge. She adds a photograph and states the facts only. She does not write why she thinks it happened.
3. Proposal. The contractor proposes to apply more primer in the low areas, inside the recoat window, until the DFT reaches the minimum. This restores full conformity, so it is rework.
4. Acceptance. The owner's engineer reads the proposal and accepts it in writing.
5. Action. The contractor applies the extra primer.
6. Verification. The inspector measures again with a verified gauge. The readings meet the specified minimum. She records them, with the gauge serial number.
7. Close-out. She closes NCR 007 with the date and her signature. It appears in the daily report of day 12 as raised and in the report of day 15 as closed. The weekly summary shows it as closed.

If the re-inspection had failed, the NCR would stay open and go back to the proposal step. The inspector never closes an NCR because the contractor says it is fixed.

Traceability of instruments

Record each instrument's serial number with its readings. Keep the calibration certificates and the daily verifications. Check that the certificate matches the unit in use, with the serial number, the dates and the laboratory.

SSPC-PA 2 asks you to verify the accuracy of a thickness gauge at least at the start and end of each work shift. ASTM D7091 defines calibration, verification and adjustment (DFT measurement).

If a gauge fails a check, treat every reading since the last good check as suspect. The serial number tells you which readings and which areas the gauge measured. Those areas must be measured again. Without the serial number, the owner might have to doubt the whole survey.

Exam traps

• Trap: "The inspector chooses the corrective action." The contractor proposes it. The owner or engineer accepts it. The inspector verifies it.
• Trap: "Close the NCR when the contractor says the work is done." The inspector closes it after a re-inspection.
• Trap: "Write what you think of the applicator." Write facts only: readings, places, conditions.
• Trap: "A recorded serial number proves the readings were right." It makes the readings traceable. Calibration and verification show that they were right.
• Trap: "A calibration certificate is enough." The inspector also records the daily verification of the gauge.
• Trap: "A repair restores the original specification." That is rework. A repair is fit for purpose and needs the owner's concession.

How the exams treat it

The AMPP CIP 1 and CIP 2 guides both give the Documentation domain 10 % of the theory exam. A FROSIO training body lists a daily log station in its course. See also SSPC-PA 2 and ASTM D7091.

197 practice items in the members area mention this topic (CIP 1: 83 · CIP 2: 87 · FROSIO written: 27).

Related

• Standards: ISO 4628 · ASTM D610
• The inspector's job: Reference (control) areas · Hold points, witness points and the ITP