Quality Assurance is critical in mega-projects as it generates more data than the plant engineering. This data is not purely technical, it tracks people’s collaboration as well. This data serves as a bridge between product or work quality and the company's reputation.

Developed by crenger.com framework (QAF) for quality assurance data aggregation and analysis processes all inspections and tests (IAT) intended to control the quality of procured equipment or systems during manufacturing, on-site assembly, commissioning, and handing over to the customer.

QAF represents IAT as a sequence bounded by time and conditions, of the following nodes.

1. Interim inspections (II) to verify product manufacturing complies with the inspection and test plan (ITP, part of the purchasing specification) and the percentage of work done (as per the purchase order)
2. Factory acceptance tests (FAT) to certify the equipment functionality meets the specification requirements
3. Incoming good inspections (IGI) to ascertain the equipment arrives intact and meets the purchase order scope
4. Assembly sequence supervision (ASV) to avoid mistakes in the equipment assembly sequences
5. Equipment installation checks (EIC) to validate all mechanical and electrical parts and pieces connect correctly
6. Control hardware and software checks (CHSC) to ascertain wiring terminates correctly, instrument outputs valid signals, and control safeguards (alarms and interlocks) work
7. System functional & performance tests (SFT) to verify the equipment and systems operability and controllability, and warranted performance conformity
8. Integrated performance and fail-safe tests (IPT) to demonstrate the plant performs and fails safely under various scenarios as requested by the plant specification

QAF handles the above-listed IAT types similarly.

The IAT template describing IAT generic rules is broadcast onto the plant equipment. For instance, a rule to “test the piping piece at 150% of the process pressure” is translated into testing of an item with a tag of PN-100-100 at the specific pressure of 6 Barg for a specific duration of 1 hour.

All the IAT web forms are only filled online. Once a check, inspection or test is completed, the system validates the results and changes the IAT status. The progress report is instantly updated, and notifications are sent to subscribers. If IAT is part of the purchase order, the work completion may trigger the invoice sending.

The total count of IATs may be well above 200,000. That explains why quick navigation of IATs is among the top priorities of QAF. The IAT search engine combines different entry points and types of grouping. The user may start from a project and the IAT or equipment type, from P&ID or the plant layout, or from a purchasing order. To accelerate the search the search engine takes into account the user profile and her/his last activities. Shown below are 2 different presentations of the device statues. The first uses P&ID, the second – the plant layout,

Besides real-time monitoring and full transparency and accountability advantages, QAF cuts unproductive time waste, improves data accuracy, enhances collaboration, increases its efficiency, and enforces proactive risk identification. (The last point is discussed elsewhere.)