Audit Points for Auditing a Welding Supplier

S

sally2012

#1
Hi everyone, I'm here again to ask question from you guys. I will audit one of our supplier who is engaged in steel works and I'm not knowledgeable enough in terms of welding activity. Could you please share some guiding questions and what documents to look for when I audit their welding process? I did some research and I saw terms like WPS, PQR and others. Please help me on this.
 
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J

jbeckproe

#2
Re: ISO 9001:2008 Audit Points for Welding

Google, American Welding Society Welding Inspection Handbook.

It will be very hard to audit a welding company without prior knowledge of welding, processes or WPS's (which stands for Welding Procedure Specification).

Not only will you need to audit their welding process but I would also recommend auditing their NDE process, PWHT (Post Weld Heat Treatment), calibration of welding equipment, rod storage control, etc.

I do a lot of welding audits. Most of the time the welder is not following the WPS. This will include rod selections, pre-heat, amp, volts, etc.

Some other books to review.

AWS D1.1
ASME Section 9

Good luck

Jason Beck
 
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qusys

Trusted Information Resource
#3
Re: ISO 9001:2008 Audit Points for Welding

Hi everyone, I'm here again to ask question from you guys. I will audit one of our supplier who is engaged in steel works and I'm not knowledgeable enough in terms of welding activity. Could you please share some guiding questions and what documents to look for when I audit their welding process? I did some research and I saw terms like WPS, PQR and others. Please help me on this.
We should know the objective and the criteria of the audit.
Do you intend to potentially qualify it to work for your organization or is it an audit to check eventual open issues?
Is the scope related to their Quality mgmt system on their premises or versus the work performed directly on your site?
If you have signed off a contract with them and a scope of the work , you may want to assess their activity on your site based upon the requirments you have agreed with them in terms of quality, costs and time.
Besides, you could involve technical expert for the part related to the service if you do not have any competence about them.
Lead auditor of the team can involve adequate resources for the scope, taking into account the request of the commitment of this supplier audit.
I do not know if it helps:bigwave:
 
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#4
Re: ISO 9001:2008 Audit Points for Welding

Hi everyone, I'm here again to ask question from you guys. I will audit one of our supplier who is engaged in steel works and I'm not knowledgeable enough in terms of welding activity. Could you please share some guiding questions and what documents to look for when I audit their welding process? I did some research and I saw terms like WPS, PQR and others. Please help me on this.
Sally - why are you going to be doing this audit? I agree with the previous post. If you are not familiar with the welding process, an audit will be almost meaningless and, frankly, the result of your audit won't be worth very much if you are looking to qualify a supplier etc. Do you have someone you can take along with you, who knows welding? They can act as an 'interpreter' almost...
 
S

sally2012

#6
Re: ISO 9001:2008 Audit Points for Welding

Sally - why are you going to be doing this audit? I agree with the previous post. If you are not familiar with the welding process, an audit will be almost meaningless and, frankly, the result of your audit won't be worth very much if you are looking to qualify a supplier etc. Do you have someone you can take along with you, who knows welding? They can act as an 'interpreter' almost...
Hi Andy, sometimes there are task that should be done because your boss asked you too. Sometimes, there are boss that ask you to do things thinking that you are superwoman who can do everything and knows everything. I'd like to believe that my audit will not be meaningless (as you said) because I still have weeks to study the basics of welding process. I would never do something futile that is why I'm exerting extra effort for this. And of course, you guys are helping me with all these ideas. Thanks for the COVE!. =)
 

qusys

Trusted Information Resource
#7
Re: ISO 9001:2008 Audit Points for Welding

Hi Andy, sometimes there are task that should be done because your boss asked you too. Sometimes, there are boss that ask you to do things thinking that you are superwoman who can do everything and knows everything. I'd like to believe that my audit will not be meaningless (as you said) because I still have weeks to study the basics of welding process. I would never do something futile that is why I'm exerting extra effort for this. And of course, you guys are helping me with all these ideas. Thanks for the COVE!. =)
Hi Sally, only a question for you.
DId you ever conduct audit? Do you have experience in supplier audit as well?
This could be critical more than technical knowledge.
ISO 19001 guidelines are useful for this.
Besides the committent shall indicate the objective and the criteria of this audit. The risk is that if you are studying welding basics, it will be unusefull if the scope is not clear.:bigwave:
 
S

sally2012

#8
Re: ISO 9001:2008 Audit Points for Welding

Hi Sally, only a question for you.
DId you ever conduct audit? Do you have experience in supplier audit as well?
This could be critical more than technical knowledge.
ISO 19001 guidelines are useful for this.
Besides the committent shall indicate the objective and the criteria of this audit. The risk is that if you are studying welding basics, it will be unusefull if the scope is not clear.:bigwave:
Yes, I have been auditing and audited for several years now. No worries about that. The only thing that bothers me is that it is my first time to audit welding process. =)
 
A

Antyp

#9
Re: ISO 9001:2008 Audit Points for Welding

My input will be surely not full, and probably i forgot a lot (i didn't work with welding for last 5 years) but i will write little something i was always checking and find a lot of issues on those fields.

If it is automatic welding line, check very deeply quality control performed by operators and rules for repairs, as well as records after repairs i never seen autmatic welding without manual repairs.

Important is welder training (internal depending on circumstances - for special characteristics and so is not enough) and very clear visual aids, as this is visual control...

Whats worth also to go into, is cut control (idk proper english name) to see and evaluate weld penetration on both materials. Requirements, records and finally take a sample and let them cut and measure it in front of You, microscope is kind of a "must".

If welding is performed on special "jigs - lock tables" check if clamping of welded parts are proper and this table is inspected and adjusted (it can be treaten like semi pokayoke, not to mention about preventive maintenance).
If not check how they secure welded parts against mistakes rooted with position.

As was already mentioned setup of parameters is a must and depends on type of welding, as well as welding materials.

I would also go into quality control of parts that are going to be welded - material composition and such, which can determine welding method and parameters, and naturally periodical inspection of material.

Finally i do not completely agree that auditor should know the process before auditing, i got far better results when i took position of a men that dont know nothing and is asking for complete explanation and help to understand. I used this approach even when i knew how the process should go.
 
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