My source inspection services

Source inspection is an examination of customer-purchased product performed at the supplier’s facility to verify product integrity and conformance to specified requirements prior to delivery. Source inspection may be performed on a finished product immediately before shipment; it may also be carried out in process, to ensure the conformance of sub-assemblies that may be obscured—and thus impossible to inspect subsequently—as the assembly is built up.

Two specific and common forms of source inspection are first article inspection and pre-cap inspection:

• First article inspection is the initial inspection of a first production piece, checked for compliance with engineering drawings. Traditionally, first article inspection has been performed on castings, forgings, and machined parts to prove tooling before embarking on production runs. However it may also be performed on electronic assemblies, for example, to prove the effectiveness of the production process before committing to order quantities. See also my AS9102 first article inspection services page.
• Pre-cap inspection is commonly performed prior to sealing or encapsulating high-reliability microelectronic components for which compliance with military, space or international specifications is critical.

What I will do for you

I will perform source inspection in accordance with any specific instructions you provide, but typically I will

• review the supplier’s processing records, route travellers, etc. to establish that all planned manufacturing, inspection and test operations have been carried out and properly recorded;
• check for evidence that any measuring equipment used in prior inspections or tests was under a system of calibration control and within calibration at the time that inspections or tests were performed;
• verify that the product complies with pertinent engineering drawings, for example:
  • finished products conform to “top level” or interface control drawings;
  • products inspected in process conform to assembly drawings to the degree appropriate for the stage of manufacture at which they are inspected;
• ensure that product identification, marking or labelling requirements set out in drawings or associated specifications are properly observed;
• determine the status of any related nonconformance reports, waivers or deviations and how these bear upon the acceptability of the product;
• where required, witness the packaging of finished product, ensuring that shipping containers and materials and packaging methods comply with specified requirements such that product integrity will be maintained during transit.

I will prepare a report for you using your own forms or report format if available; otherwise I will provide a report to you in my own style and covering the agreed inspection subjects.