How much quality is enough and at what cost? If the cost of corrective action is less than that of current non-compliance costs, why continue with your current procedures? If some proper training could make the difference in your bottom line, is it time to commit to improvements in your personnel’s skill sets?

In an industrial setting like manufacturing, procedures developed over time can sometimes lead to complacency. Periodically, an analysis is needed to ensure the latest available techniques and procedures are being implemented to continually improve quality and cut costs. The key to continual improvement can be as simple as securing the latest appropriate available training.

TRAINING IS ALWAYS KEY

Without regular and authorized training from outside sources, techniques and procedures tend to atrophy over time. Experienced Bill teaches his methods to newly hired Brenda and she adopts his long-learned habits and “tricks” to accomplish the assigned tasks. Are these methods correct? Is following “old habits” a reliable policy? Has technology “passed them by” as to properly completing the task? How can the company know that the methods being used are still valid and valuable?

Whatever the reject rate in a manufacturing sector, it can almost always be improved. Lost material, wasted machine time, consumed energy, employee wages and other cost factors created by producing defective products is a quantifiable expense. How high a cost is acceptable, or has it become “too high” to sustain? Can the controllable cost factors be reduced, minimized, eliminated? How will you know?

SERIOUS SITUATIONS

When quality is a matter of “life and death” of personnel, there is a much greater imperative at play. Is any additional cost too high when lives are at stake?? Take machined threads that join tubulars in a volatile combustible fluid/gas environment. Leaks can lead directly to fires, explosions or deadly inhalation danger and threads are the “last line of defense” for the transmission lines. Combine that with the fact that threads are also the weakest point of containment in the transmission line and there is great downside potential if they are not fully reliable. The quality and proper fit of those threads is all that lies between the potentially deadly fluids and gases and the workers that must perform in proximity to them.

The slightest deviation in thread forms like flanks, pitches, leads, heights or angles that experience pressures that can exceed 10,000psi (69mpa) can permit at first a tiny gas/fluid propagation and eventually a deadly torrent. How well are your workers measuring and gauging your thread forms with this impact to be considered? How are their skills developed? How appropriately have they been trained? How recently?

CHECKS & BALANCES

So how can a company properly evaluate the benefits and costs of turning to an outside training contractor to improve their in-house performance? The “governing authorities” hold the key. For every industry, there is a government or quasi-government organization that provides the regulations, specifications and requirements under which that industry operates.

Everyone is now familiar with the impact of ISO, EPA and other major regulatory bodies and their role in overseeing quality, safety and compliance issues for vast swaths of the manufacturing sector. For specific industries like aerospace & defense, the FAA, AIA, IATA and GAMA rule the roost. For the automotive sector NHTSA in the lead with the FTC and NSTB having oversight. The steel sector deals with ASTM, ASME and other standard setters. In the energy sector (specifically oil & gas) it is API and SPE in general and with OSHA and EPA playing no small part in overseeing requirements, standards and practices.

Manufacturers must adhere to the strictest set standards currently in effect, and they face an ever-evolving regulatory environment as those standards are modified, upgraded and changed over time. Additionally, there are product inspections at every point in the supply chain from initial manufacturing to postproduction verification, to third party involvement to receiving inspection and even “in-use” spot checking. This verification chain is there to repeatedly verify that the product meets the set standards of use from “cradle to grave.”  If any review in the process determines that the product is non-compliant, a costly process is generated to determine who is responsible for the issue and what corrective action must be taken.

The standard of inspection and the qualification of the inspectors will vary from entity to entity along the product verification chain. Who then has the highest standard of inspection and the best ability to verify the product will comply with the set standard? Without possession of the latest and highest standards of compliance and technique available, the risk becomes greater. The only way to achieve this exceptional standard is to secure the appropriate level of proper authorized training and incorporate it into operating procedures.

Specific to OCTG and Drill Pipe for example, “all roads” lead to the American Petroleum Institute. This body has become the global authority over the industry and imposes strict safety driven regulations on oil & gas companies across the world. Compliance is mandatory and specifications continue to evolve to embrace new technologies and procedures frequently. Proactive companies will not only fully comply with published requirements, but should anticipate emerging requirements and “get ahead of the curve” to keep their competitive edge intact. rel="noopener noopener" target="_blank

COMMITMENTS TO QUALITY

The onus on quality sits with the manufacturer as they input the greatest cost

factor into the product and assume the greatest risk if it is rejected. They can only control their own actions and so must “set the standard” high from the start to ensure that subsequent reviews of product compliance cannot “overrule” their own results. Of all the players in the supply chain, it is they who can most benefit from up to date, fully compliant and verified training of their operators.

At the other end of the supply chain lies the end user who ultimately pays for all the activity from manufacturing to transport to inspection and the proper case and eventual use of the materials. Their vested interest is very high, but they are in the unique position of control over all their vendors. In simple terms, no one gets paid until they are happy. They too have the burden of verification of compliance in accepting the product, as after their approval, only then is the chain of supply completed.

In between are the third-party vendors. For inspection companies in the energy sector such as DNV, Lloyds, Moody’s and others, their very existence depends on performing fully compliant work. They too have a heavy burden to secure the very latest information and techniques to properly provide their services. Training should be an ongoing endeavor for them, and they especially should seek out and obtain the very latest authorized techniques and even tout that fact to the industry.

CONCLUSIONS

To answer the original question, how much quality is truly enough? To steal a line from Daniel Craig in Skyfall when he was asked in the casino “What do you know about pain?” his answer was “All there is.” Is this not the same for quality? Every producer and end user very much wants “All there is” when it comes to the reliability, usability and repeatability of their products. One true way to secure this lofty goal is to improve your people’s knowledge base, use the very latest approved techniques and seek out the proper appropriate training to accomplish that mission. Quality is a goal. A goal with a cost. That cost is paid either through good planning and in a methodical approach or in claims, accidents and in extreme cases legally. The entire supply chain benefits when Quality Is King. Make Quality your overriding goal from the very start.