Types of inspections

Many different types of inspections are used in industry.  Each has a specific purpose but share common elements which ensure that the inspection achieves its objective.  Inspection types include those shown in the table below and described in the content that follows:

These inspections are planned, deliberate activities which are conducted on a regular frequency and encompass the entire operation.  The operation itself may be divided into segments which can be inspected in about one hour.  To help determine the frequency at which the inspections should be conducted, the segments could be evaluated using a Hazard Analysis and Identification process to identify the risks.  

This analysis will help the operation to determine a frequency of inspection consistent with the risk present in the segment.  High risk areas, for example those where there is a significant man/machine interaction, higher risk processes, etc. should be thoroughly inspected at least monthly.  

Lower risk areas such as tank farms, lay-down areas, decommissioned operations, etc. could have a bimonthly or quarterly frequency.  The important point is that the inspection frequency should be consistent with the perceived risk, i.e. the higher the risk, the more frequent the inspection.  Formal work area inspection requirements include the following:

• Use a knowledgeable team.
• Use checklists.
• Identify hazards, substandard acts/conditions, and environmental concerns.
• Classify the hazards.
• Identify corrective actions.
• Assign follow-up responsibility.
• Assign target completion dates

Sufficient hands-on training must be provided to all people doing the inspections to prepare them to efficiently and effectively perform this role.  In addition, inspection checklists should be used when conducting Work Area Inspections.  

An example of an inspection checklist is shown on the next page.  (Note that the listings provided may not be complete and should be modified to fit your business needs).  They are provided as an example only.

Tours are conducted by senior and middle managers.  During these tours they are often accompanied by SHEQ Committee personnel, SHEQ staff, and local area management and leadership.  Guidance on key issues to review or observe during these tours should be provided by safety and risk control personnel.

The purpose of these tours is to provide management team members with an opportunity to view work place conditions and acts, communicate with employees regarding the work and any employee concerns, review effectiveness of corrective actions, observe specific activities relevant to production, etc.  Management should use a tour record form as both a reminder of the activities and areas to be observed and a record of the tour.  An example of a tour record form is given below.

Where specific expertise is required to determine safety, regulatory compliance, or compliance to codes, special functional inspections are performed.  These could include electrical substations, boilers, sprinkler systems and tanks.

Often these functional inspections are contracted to external agencies with adequate acknowledged expertise to conduct and report on the compliance of these systems to regulations, codes and standards.  Recommendations resulting from these inspections must be submitted to management so that an action plan can be developed to accomplish the needed corrections in a reasonable time.

Regardless of who does the inspection, the company bears the responsibility for compliance and therefore must ensure that actions are being taken to achieve and stay in compliance.

While Preventive Maintenance, (PM), activities are primarily focused on continuing the serviceability and extending the useful life of production equipment and machinery, each PM task offers an opportunity for maintenance personnel to concurrently perform an inspection.

There are some organisations with Information Systems based PM programmes which have developed software to record the hazards identified during PM inspections.  These systems also track the follow-up actions required to ensure correction and ongoing availability of the equipment or machinery.

In any operation there are pieces of equipment, materials, structure or machinery whose loss, failure or unavailability could seriously affect employees’ physical well-being/health, production or profitability of the company.  These would be considered critical to the operation and should be given special attention.  Specific inspection processes with appropriate frequencies should be implemented to prevent potential losses.  A usual convention for differentiating between parts and items is that “parts” are currently in use and “items” are in inventory.

A CRITICAL PART/ITEM is an item or component part of machinery, equipment, structure or area that is likely to result in major loss when worn, damaged, abused, misused or improperly applied.  They are more likely to result in major harm or loss than other parts/items.

Remember our definition of an Incident, an unplanned event that could or does result in harm; harm occurs to people, property, process or the environment and means that someone is injured, or something damaged.

The process for determining criticality has the following steps:  

• List all equipment, materials and machinery:

Systematically evaluate all equipment, material, machinery and structures by reviewing the lists or by some other organised process.  Everything in the plant should be considered, including raw materials and essential chemicals.  Each of these is then subjected to an analytical procedure to assess its criticality to the operation.  

• Assess the criticality:

A three-by-three matrix can be used to assess the criticality.  The vertical line on the chart is labelled as the Potential Severity and the horizontal line is labelled as the as Probability of Occurrence.  For Potential Severity the hazard classification system could be used.  Probability of Occurrence range would need to be defined by the plant management.

When assessing criticality, consider the harm or damage that can result if the part malfunctions, the costs associated with carrying replacement parts in inventory, repair and replacement times, cost of the parts,  loss of production, and ordering and delivery time.

Criteria must be established which determine the combinations of Potential Severity and Probability of Occurrence constitute “critical”.  For example, if we adopt the assumption that Probability of Occurrence will be read first and Potential Severity second, then High/High and Medium/High would be considered critical, but High/Medium may not necessarily be critical.  The decision on this issue rests with the site personnel (see the example on the next page).

• Equipment, Materials or Machinery deemed to be critical are listed:

A listing is now made of equipment, materials or machinery which has been identified as critical to the operation due to their potential for loss.  This list will include those in inventory and spares in place such as an additional pump or extra forklift.  The Critical Parts and Items list is dynamic.  A piece of equipment determined to be critical due to production concerns that is not listed on the critical list because a spare was available would need to be added to the list when that spare had been used or was unserviceable.  It would then be removed when a new spare became available.

• The parts are assessed for criticality:

Each part of the equipment or structures deemed critical are now analysed to determine those that are critical.  The matrix presented can be used for this purpose, or a brainstorming process can be used using knowledgeable personnel.  From this work, the parts which are deemed critical in each piece of equipment or machinery are identified.

• Parts deemed critical are listed:

All parts identified as critical are listed.  The same discretion must be used here when removing parts from the list as for the equipment/machinery/ materials.  At this point some secondary considerations come into play.  Critical parts and items that have a high value, may not be kept on hand due to the investment required to carry them in inventory.  Having a critical part on inventory is an excellent way to limit downtime.  When failure occurs for high value parts considered critical, procedures must be in place with suppliers to ensure their timely delivery.  Where spare parts are in inventory or double redundant equipment is available, then that part would not necessarily be considered critical for productivity reasons, however it may still be considered critical for injury, illness, fire, explosion, or environmental reasons. 

• Inspection frequencies are established:

Inspection of critical parts in use is needed to ensure continued safe and productive operation.  The following are some sources of pertinent information which can serve as a guide to establishing inspection frequencies: manufacturer’s recommendations, accident/breakdown experience, the age of the item, industry communications, and feedback from maintenance personnel.

• Preventive maintenance programmes are established:

Many companies which have identified their critical parts and items have integrated their critical parts inspection and maintenance requirements into the PM programme.  This marriage ensures timely, structured attention to the critical part or item.  PM programmes will also track age, and based on the life expectancy, can flag the need for more frequent inspections as the predicted end of the useful life approaches.  See Figure 1.  If, due to SHEQ considerations, critical inspections must be done on a very routine basis by operators, e.g. daily or every shift, then these inspections will need to be established and managed independent of the PM process.

Where parts or items have not been included on the list due to spare equipment being available, there must be a system in place which ensures that the spare equipment is inspected, tested and confirmed to be in good working order.

• Purchasing controls are developed for critical parts related to production.

• The list is reviewed whenever changes occur:

A critical parts and items listing are not static.  As new machinery, equipment or materials are added to and used in the operation, they must be assessed for their criticality and additions made to the list as needed.

The critical parts listing can be maintained manually or electronically but should include the information shown in the example on the next page (note that information has been inserted into the table for illustration purposes only).

Most process and petrochemical industries have a department which focuses on the metallurgical integrity of its plant and equipment.  This department includes in its responsibility, the testing of process piping and equipment to determine corrosion and erosion rates and predict when change-outs are necessary.  

They also ensure that the metallurgy of replacement components is correct for the intended service.  These departments have their own schedules for the testing and inspection of equipment.  Some metallurgical departments have integrated their scheduling with both the PM programme and maintenance activities.  They are an essential department and members of these departments must be included in the critical parts identification process.

The environment is usually considered to be the working environment where formal, planned inspections are performed.  Work area inspections do not generally address those issues which affect ground water, air, subsurface water or soil.  

However, operations within the plant may lead to leaks and emissions which could contaminate these media and impact the properties outside the company boundaries.  The inspection process should include the requirement to identify any hazards of this nature and include them on the inspection report.  Any operation considering moving toward an ISO 14001 certification must have these processes in place.

Ergonomics is a relatively new discipline which reviews the worker/equipment interactions and their effect upon the workers’ well being.  Ergonomics inspectors and teams assess the physical exertion placed on workers performing their tasks and seek ways to lessen the impact on the worker.   

Cumulative trauma disorders such as Carpal Tunnel Syndrome are becoming more prevalent.  Specific training is needed to properly prepare employees to inspect the work place and identify ergonomic hazards.  Ergonomics inspections can be integrated into the formal, planned inspection process provided that the inspection team includes an employee trained in ergonomics.

When the workplace is neat and clean with no space encumbered with spare parts or unnecessary storage, morale is at its highest.  Inspections which give proper attention to housekeeping should include the:

• Detection of clutter.
• Trip hazards presented by tools.
• Materials, hoses and cords left in aisles.
• Spills and leaks which have not been corrected.
• Overcrowding of shelves.
• Work benches and material storage areas.
• Obsolete and unnecessary materials left in work areas.
• Scrap accumulation in work areas, and
• Tools, raw materials and inventory not returned to proper storage. 

Good housekeeping provides many benefits including:

• Higher employee morale.
• Better work habits.
• Better employee attitude toward safety.
• Good inventory control.
• Increased fire code compliance.
• Reduced accident losses.
• Fewer substandard acts by contractors/visitors.
• Improved management practices.
• Improved efficiency and effectiveness.

The results of Housekeeping Inspections reflect on all departmental personnel.  Those performing the inspection should provide feedback of the findings, to the departments.  Continuous improvement can be stimulated and encouraged by communicating housekeeping results between similar departments and by quantifying the local department’s level of housekeeping.

Regulations require specific inspections at a prescribed frequency for certain machinery and equipment.  Cranes, radio-active sources, pressure vessels and boilers are examples of these regulated inspections. 

Specific mobile, materials handling equipment present unique and sometimes significant hazards to the operation.  Safety checks need to be performed prior to use to ensure reliable performance throughout the next working period.  

Although regular maintenance is performed, heavy use of the  equipment may create a high potential for additional wear and tear during normal operation.  While the current operator may not notice the  brakes fading over his shift, the next operator is likely to detect this as a potential for an accident, record it on the pre-use inspection and have repairs made.  

Using the pre-use inspection process helps companies to guard against these types of losses.  Overhead cranes and other mobile equipment such as scissors lifts, scrubbers and pallet jacks, should be included in this programme.  

On the next page is a sample Pre-use Checklist which can be modified to meet specific company needs.

Where a company maintains its own transport fleet, it is constantly in the public domain.  As such, it is exposed to public scrutiny and a potential for high liability should one of its vehicles be involved in an accident.  If the media determined that improper maintenance was a contributing factor to the accident, then public confidence could be seriously affected.  To guard against these potential losses, a similar pre-use inspection programme should be in place for transportation equipment.   

Through experience, it has been found that a post-trip inspection adds additional value.  Post-trip inspections identify items which have become defective during the working day and allow for correction overnight rather than being found during the following day’s pre-use inspection and delaying deliveries.  A sample pre-and post-trip inspection report is shown in the example on the next page

Thorough, regular inspections, performed by trained and knowledgeable employees, detect and correct hazards in the work place before accidental losses occur, and reduce costs associated with lack of compliance to regulations, codes and standards.  

Multiple inspection processes are used in most industries. These inspection processes need to be overseen by a responsible manager.  Inspections should be integrated to prevent duplicate effort and to ensure a common philosophy prevails.  Integration also simplifies the systems approach to managing the control of work site hazards.  

The use of a comprehensive inspection process ensures that:

• Hazards are identified.
• Identified hazards are analysed.
• Their risks are assessed.
• Hazards are classified as to loss potential.
• Corrective actions are identified.
• Responsibility for implementation of corrective action is assigned.
• Target completion dates are set.
• Common corrective action records are set up and distributed.
• Management reviews these records at their regular meetings.
• Compliance to code, standard and regulation is maximised.
• Accidental losses are eliminated or reduced.

 To put the cost of an inspection programme into perspective, consider the cost of performing monthly inspections versus the costs to recover from a major production disruption in your operation.  Inspections maximise your hazard control efforts and reduce your potential for accidental loss.