API Q1

Post my retirement I have taken up the job of training assignment in the field I like most – Integrity and Reliability of Static Equipment and I covered  practically all the gamut from design to corrosion in actual service .

It may made me face various personalities ( Over 220 in nos) and it was interesting to deal with them some very enthusiastic to learn , some trying to find out how they cannot learn anything new , some had immediate use of the learning they got from these courses , some were wondering why they were sent to course.

Being the course facilitator I had to ensure that all got interested in absorbing as much knowledge if not 100% and one thing which helped me in that I started asking them the expectation from the course right at the start of course since I knew that there were many who would have been sent to these courses as their bosses would have seen this as opportunity for improving their career prospects by widening the horizion.

Another point I wanted to establish as facilitator was  developing a reading habit amongst participants  – reading of these wonderful documents published by ASME ( American Society of Mechanical engineers) , API ( American Petroleum institute) , NACE ( National Association of Corrosion Engineers) , ISO (International Standards Organization) and many other such documents.

I also wanted to solve any immediate problem the participants are facing – and one such problem was mostly they were not happy that L1 ( lowest bidder in competitive quoting system) many ( or perhaps most of the) times could not deliver the quality.

So obviously the vendor evaluation system gets discussed and the key issue is “Technical Competency” of vendor/supplier . The participants were encouraged to use the above mentioned codes technical details to evaluate the vendor and one of the suggestions which was liked/appreciated by participants was to use API Q1 certification as requirement for registering the vendors.

Advantages of getting vendors certified under API Q1 :

It deals with quality management systems and also requires validation of design , risk assessment/risk management , ensuring competency/training of staff , establishing robust supply chain management ultimately producing a “Reliable product” consistently !!