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EFCOG Best Practice #59
(12/17/08)
PDF
Version
Title:
Qualification
of (ALL) Inspection and Test Personnel (Not
Just QA Organizations)
Facility:
Los Alamos National Laboratory/West Valley Demonstration
Project
Point of Contact:
Tim J. McEvoy, 505-667-8172,
mcevoytj@lanl.gov or Bob Carter, 509-377-3220,
bob.carter@wch-rcc.com
Brief Description of Best Practice:
To ensure that ALL
organizations (NOT JUST QA) utilizing “Inspection and
Test Personnel” for acceptance of items or activities
affecting quality are qualified by discipline, and that
these qualifications are documented (certified) in
accordance with the contractors approved QA Program that
utilized Codes and National Consensus Standards when
developed.
Why the best practice was used:
The initial qualification methods used to
qualify and document inspection and test personnel should be
based on national codes and consensus standards (e.g.
American Welding Society, International Code Council, and
American Society of Mechanical Engineers). If third-party
certifications are available in the discipline needed then
that certification should be required for inspectors.
However, if the third-party certifications are cost/time
prohibitive then an extensive in-house certification program
should be established. An in-house certification process
should include those elements listed in ASME NQA-1-2004
non-mandatory Appendix 2A-1 “Guidance on the Qualification
of Inspection and Test Personnel”. In addition to the
guidance found in NQA-1 a rigorous mentoring program should
be developed. This program should include the
qualifications of the mentors for a specific discipline and
the time required to be spent under the mentor. Secondly
properly documenting these qualifications is just as
important. ASME NQA-1 requirement 2 paragraph 302
“Inspection and Test” provides the initial evaluation and
reevaluation time frames and paragraph 400 “Certification of
Qualification” details the requirements to document
(certify) these qualifications.
Unqualified inspection and test personnel can
compromise construction efficiency and acceptability of the
final product.
What are the benefits of the best practice:
To ensure that when certification of Inspection and Test
Personnel is required by contract, graded approach process,
design specifications, or QA Program requirements, that
costly delay in schedules due to questionable acceptability
of the final product do not occur or are even perceived by
the customer or regulatory oversight organization.
What
problems/issues were associated with the best practice:
Many industry audit results have determined
that QA/QC organizations for the most part adequately
document inspection and test personnel qualifications. A
recent problem noticed is documenting qualification of
inspection and test personnel in other organizations such as
maintenance, operations, laboratories, start-up groups, etc.
The key to determine applicability is to understand that
these requirements may apply to any organization having
personnel performing inspection and test of items and
activities affecting quality as defined by the projects QA
Program and graded approach process.
How the success of the Best Practice was
measured:
More positive results from internal and external
assessments, quality of final product, decrease of
deficiencies and/or delays noted in RA, ORR, and/or startup
activities.
Description of process experience using the Best Practice:
Design personnel working with certified Level
II and III Inspection and Test Personnel when developing
procurement specifications and documents, inspection and
test hold and witness points, first article and receipt
inspection and test acceptance criteria, found it to be a
much improved method when these discipline certified
inspectors were involved up front in the document review and
approval or concurrence process.
When these
inspections and test occurred in the field the independent
personnel documenting acceptance of these items and
activities had clear acceptance criteria in design documents
and work packages as did the craft personnel who fabricated
or erected these items. The results were a very much
improved accept to reject percentage. |
