The final quality depends on many factors during the entire process from making the original specification until the project is handed over?

• That our work as inspectors or coating advisors is part of the quality concept?
• That communication between all involved parties is part of the quality?

 

Definitions

Quality Policy

The organization‘s intentions and principles regarding quality

 

Operational Control

Ensure that operations and activities which have impact on significant quality and environmental aspects are carried out in a specified way

 

Non-conformance

Not in conformance with the specification (something undesirable has occurred)

 

Corrective action

Action taken to correct a detected non-conformance or other undesirable happenings

 

Preventive action

Action to eliminate the cause / prevent a recurrence of a non-conformance

ISO 9001 is a quality management system (QMS) for companies who want to prove their ability to consistently provide products and services that meet the needs of their customers and other relevant stakeholders. An independent and qualified external body may be invited to inspect all aspects of the company to check that it satisfies all the requirements of ISO 9001. If this is found to be correct, the company will become certified as complying with ISO 9001.

 

An ISO 9001 certified company will have implemented Quality Management System requirements for all areas of the business, including:

• Facilities
• People
• Training
• Services
• Equipment

 

The first stage towards certification will be to check that the written Quality Management Systems (QA Manual) meet the requirements of the ISO 9001 Standard and match what is actually done and highlight any areas of deficiency and potential improvement of the system.

 

In stage two of the certification, an external assessor/auditor will check that the entire company is working to the requirements of its Quality Management Systems and the ISO 9001 Standard. The Quality Management Systems must be incorporated into every area of the business. All staff must be aware of what is expected of them and where their areas of responsibility lie, in order to achieve ISO 9001 Certification.

 

The documented Quality Management System must define:

• Organisation structure
• Who should record information and what information is recorded
• Responsibilities of employees
• Lines of communication throughout the company
• What actions are required
• How continuity will be maintained as staff change

 

Defining the Quality Management System will require input from all the departments in the organisation. It needs to:

• Define who the customers are for each department, for example:
  • For the sales and marketing department it will be the end users
  • For the IT department, it will be internal departments
• Document the activities in each area.
• Review the ISO 9001 Standard to ensure the requirements have been met.
• Identify any problem areas and rectify them

 

Management of Documentation

• The importance of keeping records and using the correct documentation must be to communicated to all employees
• The use of documents must be controlled to ensure the latest version is being used, this is an important part of ISO 9001. It must be ensured that old versions are removed and new versions distributed to the various internal departments, together with a system for version control.
• It must be identified which records are to be kept to comply with the requirements of the ISO 9001 system and which are needed to successfully run the business.

 

Corrective and preventive measures

• Inevitably, processes can go wrong and one will need to have a defined process for fixing the problem and identifying where it went wrong, before making changes to prevent it from happening again.
• One must keep a record of any actions that have been taken to rectify a problem. Where possible one should identify potential problem areas and set up a system to prevent or minimise their effect before it happens.

 

On-going support and training

• Staff should be suitably trained to ensure they can carry out their job function. Keep records of experience, education and training to identify their capabilities.
• Future training requirements can then be implemented together with any new skills that may be needed as the business evolves.
• Using this information, one will be able to identify any gaps in experience if new equipment is installed or new products added

 

Regular Internal Quality Auditing

• Regular Internal Quality Auditing of the system is required. Persons within the organisation who are independent of the function being audited may carry these out.
• The Internal Auditor will check that procedures in the Quality Manual are being followed and will identify any areas of concern to be rectified.
• There must be a procedure for how audits are to be planned, conducted and recorded.

 

ISO 9001 key elements

• System
  • The company shall establish, document, implement and maintain a quality management system and continually improve its effectiveness in accordance with the standard
• Management responsibility
  • The top management shall provide evidence of its commitment to the development and implementation of the quality management system and continually improving its effectiveness
• Documentation
  • Quality policy & quality objective
  • Quality manual
  • Documented procedures
  • Documents needed to ensure effective planning, operation and control of its processes
  • Records

 

ISO 9001 - main issues

These issues apply to all phases of the business, from raw material via production, warehouse and supplying to installation (meaning handling / application of paints)

• Customer focus
  • Ensure customer requirements are determined and met, with the aim of customer satisfaction
• Management review
  • Identify improvement opportunities
• Internal audits
  • Determine whether the system conforms to the planned arrangements and to the standard
• Human resources
  • Competence, education, training, skills, experience
• Design and development
  • Control the design and development of the product
• Identification and traceability
  • Identification and traceability of the product throughout the whole business chain
• Product realization
  • Plan and develop the whole production process, including verification, validation, monitoring, inspection and testing
• Control of nonconforming product
  • Identify and control any product that does not conform to requirements, to prevent its unintended use or delivery
• Corrective actions
  • Eliminate the cause of nonconformity to prevent its reoccurrence
• Quality control
  • An integral part of all processes (activities) to ensure the products meet their specifications

 

ISO 9001 and ISO 14001

Continual improvements shall be achieved by using the “Plan / Do / Check / Act” model:

Plan:

• Quality aspects
• Regulatory
• requirements
• Objectives
• Action plans

 

Do:

• Training
• Communication
• Organisation
• Documentation
• Document control
• Operational control

 

Check:

• Records
• Internal audits
• Monitoring and measurements
• Corrective and preventive actions

 

Act:

• Management review

 

Benefits of ISO 9001

Customers and users benefit by receiving products that are:

• Conforming to requirements
• Dependable and reliable
• Available when needed
• Maintainable

 

Owners and investors benefit by:

• Increased return on investment
• Improved operational results
• Increased market share
• Increased profit

 

People in the organisation benefit by:

• Better working conditions
• Increased job satisfaction
• Improved health and safety
• Improvable moral

 

Society benefits by:

• Fulfilment of legal and regulatory requirements
• Improved health and safety
• Reduced environmental impact
• Increased security

 

Quality is not an issue only for a few within the company. To achieve a certain agreed quality for a product and /or service, all employees at all levels have an impact on the final quality, for example Coating Inspectors:

• We need clear instructions for how to do a certain task or job
  • How often to calibrate your instruments?
  • Who shall do the calibration?
  • Where to find evidence that the instruments are calibrated?
• All employees in a company must have a job description.

What is a Standard?

English dictionaries give several definitions of “Standard”, such as:

• The level of quality or excellence reached by somebody or something
  • Example: Rolls Royce cars has a high standard
• A level of quality or excellence that is accepted as the norm
  • Example: meeting NORSOK standard
• A pattern or model that is generally accepted
  • Example: ISO 9001 Quality Assurance Management System
• A level of quality or excellence by which actual attainments are judged
  • Example: Blast cleaning to Sa 2.5
• An authorized model used to define a unit of measurement
  • Example: Kilogram (kg)
• The usual way of doing something
  • Example: Standard Operating Procedure

 

Published Standards

• Standards are very widely used and generally regarded as trustworthy
• Standards are an important type of technical documentation for our industry
• Although company in-house standards may be useful, the important ones are the officially published standards, such as international standards, national standards and industry-wide standards
• Published standards are considered to be impartial, they will not favour anybody or anything, only describe their requirements and recommendations in an objective and neutral way
• Standards are often regarded as “benchmarks”, whereby an object or the result of some work or of a test may be compared to this benchmark and evaluated against it

 

Purpose of a published standard

A standard may give a detailed description of:

• how something should be done
• how some equipment or installation should be operated
• what properties an object or substance (or paint) should have
• etc.

 

By following such a detailed description one can ensure that:

• a result can be replicated (repeated)
• different results can be evaluated against each other
• different equipment can be compared to each other
• etc.

 

By using or referring to published standards, many misunderstandings and/or disputes may be avoided

 

A world without standards?

• Try to describe a special colour via telephone to the factory and ask them to make this for you. Will they succeed?
  • Not without referring to a colour standard! (our colour card is actually an in-house standard!)
• Tell a contractor to do blast cleaning to a very good standard. Will his idea of “very good” be the same as yours?
  • Not without referring to a surface preparation standard!
• A supplier guarantee that a coating can protect against corrosion for 10 years. After 5 years, you experience complete break-down. Reason?
  • He had successfully tested it on the external corrugated metal cladding of a warehouse, while you had applied it to the legs of a semi-submersible drilling rig in the Atlantic Ocean. You didn’t use a common performance standard!

 

Examples of the benefits standards provide

• Standardization of screw threads makes sure bolt and nuts fit together, so things don’t fall apart and can be replaced during maintenance
• Standards on terminology make exchange of information easier and safer, so people have identical understanding of the same word
• Without the standardized dimensions of sea and freight containers, international trade and transportation would be complicated
• Without the standardization of telephone and banking cards, life would be much more complicated both at home and abroad
• A lack of standardization may prevent the disabled access to shops, public transport and buildings if the dimensions of wheel-chairs and entrances are not standardized
• Standardized symbols provide danger warnings and information across language barriers
• Agreement on the number of variations of a product is beneficial for both producers and consumers, like the standardization of paper sizes (A3, A4, A5, etc.)

 

Using standards

Jotun use published standards in several different areas, such as:

• Management systems (ISO 9001, ISO 14001, OHSAS 18001)
• Research & Development (R & D Laboratory)
• Quality Control (QC Lab in production)
• Inspection & evaluation (Technical Service)
• Guarantees
• Specifications, records & reporting
• Product performance & certification
• Quality of surface preparation and application:
  • Preparation of the steel surface before surface treatment
  • Surface treatment prior to applying the coating / coating system
  • Inspection of the coating during and after application
  • Special inspection requirements such as Pinhole Detection in Tank Linings or Immersed Coated Steel before the coating is “put to work”

 

USE STANDARDS: You should refer to published standards whenever possible, in order to avoid misunderstandings and disputes

• Storage and handling of paints/coatings
• Storage and handling of consumable materials, abrasives etc.
• Waste handling
• Use and maintenance of equipment for pre-treatment and application
• Defects during pre-treatment and application
• Control of the process relative to the plan
• Use and calculations for consumable materials, abrasives etc.
• Inspection plan
• Inspection instruments:
  • calibrated
  • standards
  • acceptance criteria

 

Useful Check Points at site

• Specification: Available, clear and correct
• TDS & MSDS: Available
• Order: Placed, confirmed, delivery arrangements
• Product arrival: Correct type, volume, colour, shelf life, thinner
• Product storage: See next section
• Pre-treatment: , standard, ambient conditions, daily log data
• Application: Batch nos., spec., ambient conditions, daily log data
• Drying / curing: , ambient conditions, daily log data
• Final inspection: Complete records

 

FROSIO DAILY LOG 2017.pdf

FROSIO DAILY LOG 2017.docx

 

Storage and handling of paints/coatings/abrasives

Focus on:

• Ambient conditions
• Temperature
• Humidity
• Shelf life
• Safety
• Security
• Refer to product documentation SDS, TDS

(See example of SDS and TDS)

 

Chemical waste

Although rules and regulations for waste handling vary considerably between different geographical areas, there is a clear increased focus on how we deal with waste in most countries. If not handled responsibly, chemical waste can have serious consequences for planet earth, including:

• All living creatures (people, animals, birds, fish, etc.)
• Vegetation (crops, forests, soil erosion, etc.)
• Even our climate may be influenced (global warming)
• Chemical waste is one of the focus areas of United Nation
• Increasing pollution of water in rivers, lakes, oceans and even in under-ground reservoirs is a major concern to the modern world

 

Typical chemical waste generated by surface treatment activities:

• Debris from blast cleaning and grinding
• Polluted water from cleaning
• Dirty solvents
• Used paint tins and cans
• Un-used paints & coatings which is not recycled
• Solvent vapour released to the atmosphere

 

It is very important that common sense and local regulations are strictly followed when disposing of this waste. In addition to the health and environmental aspect, such waste may also be a fire hazard and must be segregated from other waste and from possible sources of ignition.

 

Consumption of abrasives and capacity

Parameters, abbreviations:

• Abrasive usage per m²
• Number of m² per time unit
• Labour cost
• Abrasive cost

 

Quality evidence

An inspector’s daily log is vital:

• It is a document that shows whether the different steps are done and approved
• Shall be short but to the point, the relevant standards will tell how to report an observation
• Shall contain as a minimum:
  • Date done
  • Inspectors name
  • Project name
  • Position name
  • Which activity (And many more depending on type of activity)

 

Keeping an up-to-date daily log is important for both yourself and for your company