API Q1 - Will I be able to maintain Q1 if I have products that fall under 6A

[theminer575]

With the release of 6A 21st Edition in November we have found ourselves unwilling to adhere to the new NDE requirements for the products listed in our scope (we have maintained a 6A Monogram license for quite some time but the costs associated with meeting the testing requirements is too much in the current environment.)

That being said, I would like to maintain a Q1 certification moving forward. My question is will I be able to maintain Q1 if I have products that fall under 6A that do not meet the 6A requirements or do I just need to move to ISO 9001 ?

 

[jmech]

With the release of 6A 21st Edition in November we have found ourselves unwilling to adhere to the new NDE requirements for the products listed in our scope (we have maintained a 6A Monogram license for quite some time but the costs associated with meeting the testing requirements is too much in the current environment.)

That being said, I would like to maintain a Q1 certification moving forward. My question is will I be able to maintain Q1 if I have products that fall under 6A that do not meet the 6A requirements or do I just need to move to ISO 9001 ?

You can maintain your Q1 certification, regardless of whether you make any products that meet any API standards/specifications.

You should drop your 6A license if you can't (or don't want to) make anything that fully conforms with API 6A.

 

[theminer575]

The decision has already been made to drop the Monogram License, the testing requirements for the PSL levels are just out of reach for us with the current market. Our customer base has responded that they are unwilling to absorb the costs associated with maintaining the license, we have rarely applied the monogram and none of our customers are requiring that we have the license in order to buy our products. I was just trying to make sure that we would be fine with a Q1 while maintaining that standard practices we have already used for 6A 20th Edition.

 

[theminer575]

Additional note: I designed our QMS to be in compliance with both Q1 and 9001 anyways. My most recent API audits went really well and I am confident that we would successfully hold either certification without any issue.

 

[Sidney Vianna]

and none of our customers are requiring that we have the license in order to buy our products.

Irrespective of your customers expectations about your API License, you better not have a customer specifying products in accordance with the latest revision of API 6A. Because, if they do, you would be in violation of both API Spec Q1 and ISO 9001:2015, short of customer waivers.

The question is: do any of your customers contractually require product compliance with API 6A or not?

 

[theminer575]

Irrespective of your customers expectations about your API License, you better not have a customer specifying products in accordance with the latest revision of API 6A. Because, if they do, you would be in violation of both API Spec Q1 and ISO 9001:2015, short of customer waivers.

The question is: do any of your customers contractually require product compliance with API 6A or not?

No, we have not sold a product to a customer under the guise of having a monogram license since November. We have relinquished the monogram license and made all of our customers aware of that fact. Prior to November we rarely if ever had a customer requirement that a product meet 6A and obviously moving forward we will not even be able to quote to a customer that has such a demand. As for the monogram itself, we had not sold a monogrammed part in 3 years.