OK, so you have a go-to FRP fabricator that you can rely on. They are called out by name in your FRP specifications. They did OK on the order you placed with them several years ago. Now you’ve got some FRP replacement parts to order. You haven’t talked to your go-to vendor in a long time, so you fire off a quick email, but the email bounces back to you as undeliverable. Hmmm. So you call them and find they are no longer in business, or your contact is no longer employed there, or the business is under new ownership and they don’t fabricate what you need. Maybe you never even worked with them at all and just inherited the specification and the fabricator qualification responsibility.
Either way, you now have to search for a new fabricator that can meet your requirements, but there isn’t enough time to do that properly. You search online to find a fabricator, hoping that you find one that can meet your requirements and can deliver in time to meet your deadline. You are getting desperate, so when you eventually find one that says they can do the work, you don’t flinch when their quote is much higher than you expected and their delivery date will cause delays in the project schedule. So you place the PO and hope…
How can you avoid this situation? In a word, re-qualify.
- Stay in touch with your specified fabricators. Letting years pass without contacting them obviously wasn’t a good idea. This can be as simple as a short email or phone call a couple of times a year.
- Visit your vendors. Tour their facilities and meet their team. Every other year somebody from your company should go to their plant and meet their key people. If you can’t do that, send an FRP knowledgeable 3rd party inspector to do it for you.
- Maintain a list of FRP vendors that meet industry standards such as certified to ASME RTP-1. If part of your job is maintaining a list of approved FRP vendors, those that meet these standards are more likely to meet your FRP equipment needs. “Approved” means you’ve qualified them and re-qualified them at least annually.
Re-qualifying your FRP vendors is not difficult but will prevent getting into a situation where you risk project budgets and schedules. For more information regarding FRP fabricator qualifying, please contact Diamond Fiberglass.