Materials, audits

Our expertise go from aeousties, material charaeteristies, teehnical audits to telecommunications, vibrations monitoring, etc... 

Laborelec is the Belgian laboratory for the electricity industry. It deals with measuring and studying problems arising with the production, transport and distribution of electricity to industrial and private customers. It has developed very diverse domains of expertise, such as acoustics, material characteristics, technical audits to telecommunications, vibrations monitoring, etc... 

Quality Audit. Another important responsibiUty of quahty assurance is the audit function. Using the quahty audit as a tool, QA can monitor the operation of the manufacturing faciUty a toU, ie, contract, manufacturer or raw material suppHer to assure that written procedures are in place and that there is documentation to indicate the procedures are being followed. Properly executed audits allow QA to spot potential weakness in the quahty system that could allow errors to occur. Once identified, these weaknesses can then be corrected before they result in nonconformance. 

Facilities Reviews There are many lands of facilities reviews that are useful in detec ting and preventing process safety problems. They include pre-start-up reviews (before the plant operates), new-plant reviews (the plant has started, but is stiU new), reviews of existing plants (safety, technology, and operations audits and reviews), management reviews, critical instrument reviews, and hazardous materials transportation reviews. 

The contract can specify the amount of time the client needs to remove its materials from the toller s facility and lays out notification procedures for dissolving the contract. Chapter 6, Closure and Audit, Example 6-1 is a sample contract termination checklist. It is an illustration of one company s inventoiy list for closing out a tolling project. It addresses material, financial, legal and environmental considerations. 

The general purpose of an audit may be to determine if the toller has management systems and documented procedures in place to ensure process safety, environmental responsibility, product quality and traceability of materials. The need to audit could be to evaluate compliance with regulations or accordance with client requirements related to specific performance elements. A subjective rating system for ranking management systems audit results is often used. An example of one that might be appropriate is shown below ... 

The technical package may specify a scope and frequency for periodic audits and performance criteria that could lead to changing the audit frequency. It may be a general safety and environmental performance audit or a special audit for items such as raw material storage and handling, quality control methods and documentation. The proprietary nature of a process or product or the complexity of the toll could be a reason to establish a more frequent audit schedule for certain tolls. Audits can also be conducted to follow-up on previously identified shortcomings to document that they were addressed properly. 

Step 6 Write the Component Material Balances. The Phase II auditing steps define the pollutants and wastes that are among the team s focus. Its objective has always been to identify specific wastes or pollutants that the enterprise can reduce these are the components the team needs to assess in the material balances. It is important to note that once the material balance for each unit operation has been completed for raw-material inputs and waste outputs, it is necessary to repeat the procedure for each contaminant of concern. 

Step 7 Write an Overall Material Balance. Remember that the P2 audit focuses on a unit process, but that there are individual unit operations that make up this process. The team will need to develop a series of material balances for each unit operation, and an overall material balance about the entire unit process, to bring closure to a solution of parameters of interest. The individual or component material balances developed may be summed to give a balance for the whole process, production area, or factory. 

Now you can reconsider the material balance equations by adding those additional factors identified in the previous step. If necessary, estimates of unaccountable losses will have to be calculated. Note that, in the case of a relatively simple manufacturing plant, preparation of a preliminary material-balance system and its refinement (Steps 14 and 15) can usefully be combined. For more-complex P2 assessments, however, two separate steps are likely to be more appropriate. An important rule to remember is that the inputs should ideally equal the outputs - but in practice this will rarely be the case. Some judgment will be required to determine what level of accuracy is acceptable, and we should have an idea as to what the unlikely sources of errors are (e.g., evaporative losses from outside holding ponds may be a materials loss we cannot accurately account for). In the case of high concentrations of hazardous wastes, accurate measurements are needed to develop cost-effective waste-reduction options. It is possible that the material balance for a number of unit operations will need to be repeated. Again, continue to review, refine, and, where necessary, expand your database. The compilation of accurate and comprehensive data is essential for a successful P2 audit and subsequent waste-reduction action plan. Remember - you can t reduce what you don t know is therel... 

Phases I and II have eovered planning and undertaking a P2 audit, resulting in the preparation of a material balance for each unit operation. Phase III represents the interpretation of the material balance, to identify process areas or components of concern. 

The OSHA audit teams found program defieieneies in two related areas the development of task- and operation-speeifie hazard analyses and the eonduet of monitoring programs designed to eharaeterize employee exposures to hazardous materials. These defieieneies are dis-eussed in more detail below. 

Trade secrets may be used in developing the information for the process hazard analysis emergency planning and responses, and compliance audits. Materials that are developed involving trade secrets may be treated as proprietary and may require signed statements for tl protection. 

They mainly apply to products as most of them are concerned with protecting the product from damage and deterioration. They apply to the end product and any items that either form part of the product or are used to produce the product, including any tools, test equipment, and processing materials. Although it is possible for some types of services to deteriorate, this use of the term preservation is covered by the process control and auditing requirements. The only requirements that do apply to services are those for identification, unless product is used in the delivery of a service. If the servicing is done to a product, whether or not the product is owned by the supplier, protection of that product is important. 

This element describes systems used to identify and address nonconforming materials or products. For ESH/PSM, this might refer to not meeting relevant standards or specifications for materials and equipment or to audit findings of noncompliance. 

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