Steel Mill Audits – a Metallurgy Approach
At OGC Energy, we work with you to verify quality management systems of your steel suppliers and to gain a complete and in-depth understanding of the steel mills technical capabilities through a metallurgical and quality assurance assessment. We carry out technical audits at steel mills to make sure the products you source comply with statutory and industry and that collect evidence that the suppliers Quality Management System ensures sustainability and reliability in the process. There are several reasons why you have to audit your steel suppliers:
Quality
- Demonstrate that your company complies with ISO 9001 2015 clause 8.4 “Control of externally provided products, services and processes”.
- Verify that the steel mill quality management system is robust enough to fulfil your technical and commercial requirements.
- Confirm the steel mill traceability system meets strict industry requirements.
- Align supplier’s quality culture to your own quality management system.
Technical
- Verify that the steelmaking practice, forming and heat treatment complies industry requirements such as API Specification Q1, API 5CT, API 5L, NACE MR0175 and DNVGL-RP-0034.
- Detailed evaluation of heat treatment facilities to verify compliance to API 6A / API 6ACRA.
- Demonstrate that testing requirements are fully understood by the mill and document quality laboratories have the technical capability to fulfil your requirements.
- Review NDT personnel qualifications and procedures to confirm quality control is satisfactory.
- In-depth assessment of welding procedures and techniques to validate compliance to codes such as ASME IX, DNV-OS-F101 and NACE MR01075.
Business
- Verify the steel mill has the commercial and technical capabilities to support your company.
- Identify steel mill technical strengths that will give your company a competitive advantage.
- Determine any non-conformance that could become a business liability and develop an action programme to timely manage any risk.
At OGC Energy, we have a strong track record helping the upstream supply chain to carry out technical audits on steel mills. Our auditing team of metallurgist have practical steel mill experience in addition to an ISO 9001 auditing certification. The OGC Energy auditing team allows companies to gain valuable business insight and to comply with ISO 9001 requirements without the cost of retaining an internal auditor on staff and with the benefit of a strong technical and experience audit team.
OGC Energy’s methodology for a Steel Mill audit typically takes 2 or 3 days and it includes:
- Kick off meeting to cover safety issues, establish objectives and agree a timescale.
- In-depth review of procedures against actual production practices to verify and document that procedures are correctly being followed. This includes:
- Steelmaking
- Forming (hot-rolling, forging etc)
- Heat Treatment
- Sampling
- Testing
- NDT
- Welding
- Witnessing specific production orders from raw material, steelmaking to inspection and shipping. At each step, QA is verified and documented.
- Attend preproduction meetings and interface with other parties involved including coating and hydrotesting contractors to ensure all processes and systems are in place and connected in order to fulfil project requirements.
- Review of production specification, quality plans (QP), inspection and test plans (ITPs), welding qualification and welding procedures (pWPS, WPQR, and WPS), forging and heat treatment procedures. NDT certification and procedures, production schedules, QA/QC procedures and other relevant project documentation.
- Technical and QA support to resolve non-conformance and fabrication deviations
- Closure meeting.
The outcome of the audit is presented in a full report and presented to a selected audience when required.
