Inspect the stainless hopper welds and control non-conformances

What is going on

The Bellbrook Foods stainless steel ingredient hopper under job card JC-26-0398 is complete and awaiting inspection. It was welded in 316 grade sheet with the gas tungsten arc process to WPS-04 and must meet the customer's food grade finish specification: full penetration on product contact seams, no crevices, welds ground and polished on the product side and passivated. The customer's food safety consultant visits on Thursday and the job has already exceeded its quoted hours. Rohan Pillai wants a documented visual inspection, a check of the weld record and traceability, and a non-conformance raised and dispositioned for anything that does not meet the requirements before the customer arrives.

Your brief

Carry out and record a visual weld inspection of the hopper against the welding procedure and the customer specification, verify the weld record and material traceability, raise non-conformance reports for any defects, agree the disposition with the Quality and Safety Manager and produce the inspection report that releases or holds the job.

Work through it

You do not need to do it all. Doing a few of these will show you what the work is like. Your ticks and notes stay on this device.

• Read the Quality Policy and the Welding Procedure and Welder Qualification Register and confirm that WPS-04 covers the joints on the hopper and that the welder identified on the weld record was current for it at the time of welding.
• Check the weld record for JC-26-0398 for completeness: joints, WPS number, welder identification, consumable batch and heat numbers, and check the heat numbers in the Materials and Certificate Register against receipt REC-26-0883.
• Carry out a visual inspection of every product-contact and external weld against the acceptance criteria for the standard and the customer's finish specification, recording location, defect type and size for each finding.
• Raise a non-conformance report for each weld or finish that does not meet the requirements, with photographs and the reference to the drawing and specification clause.
• Meet with the Quality and Safety Manager to agree the disposition for each non-conformance (rework, repair, use as is with customer approval, or scrap) and record the decision.
• Write the inspection report stating whether the hopper is released, held for rework or requires customer approval, and list the corrective actions to prevent recurrence.
• Update job card JC-26-0398 status to reflect the decision and enter the corrective action in the WHS Incident and Hazard Register if the cause is a process or training gap.

What someone in this role would produce

• Weld record and traceability verification checklist
• Visual inspection report with findings by location
• Non-conformance reports with agreed dispositions
• Updated job card JC-26-0398