Why a system's status has to come from the items in it
A system is signed off as one thing, and it cannot be signed while one item in it is still open. A single weld holds the whole system.
The system is built from its spools, its valves and its welds. Each is numbered on the drawing before fabrication starts, and the fitter, the radiographer and the QA engineer all work to that number.
When the record sits on the item, the state of the system can be read at any time. The items still open are visible without opening a folder.
A hold point is a point you nominate on the ITP, not a fixed idea the software brought with it. Work does not move past one until it is signed, and the register shows which are open and which were bypassed.
What gets recorded against the spool, the valve and the weld
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ITP and ITRsA prebuilt ITP to start from, with the required ITRs modified to suit the project. Any other ITR is built in the form builder or mapped from the form you already use. The Client's requirements or your own QMP set what has to be inspected, not the software.
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Fit-upThe joint checked and signed before welding. This is the hold point. Once the weld is made, the fit-up cannot be inspected.
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Hold accountabilityA bypassed hold point cannot be backdated. If a joint was welded without its fit-up sign-off, the record says so and says when. On paper, in a spreadsheet or in a generic checklist module, the date is a field somebody types.
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Test resultsRadiography and ultrasonic results held against the weld number, with the report reference beside the result. One report covers a run of welds and attaches to each of them.
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Spools and valvesA spool and a valve are elements in their own right, with their own ITRs and their own hold points, the same as a weld. Every item is tagged to the system it belongs to, and what is outstanding is counted from the register rather than from a list kept beside it.
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Defects and NCRsA rejected weld is raised from the field, triaged immediately in the admin portal, and added to a live-link job pack. The repair and the re-test sit against the same joint, under the same non-conformance.
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MDREvery accepted record lands in the Manufacturer's Data Report as it is signed.
One row per spool, valve and weld
| Item | Type | Isometric | Record | Hold | ITRs | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SP-0107 | Spool | 12-B-1004 | RT-0315 | Signed | 6 of 6 | Accepted |
| W-0108 | Weld | 12-B-1004 | RT-0315 | Signed | 5 of 5 | Accepted |
| V-0042 | Valve | 12-B-1004 | IT-0121 | Signed | 4 of 4 | Installed |
| W-0110 | Weld | 12-B-1005 | RT-0318 | Bypassed 22 May | 3 of 5 | NCR open |
| SP-0111 | Spool | 12-B-1005 | RT-0318 | Signed | 6 of 6 | Accepted |
| W-0112 | Weld | 12-B-1005 | Not tested | Open | 0 of 5 | At hold point |
What the programme view cannot answer
Your project management platform has a task called piping installation. It has a start, a finish, a percent complete and a subcontractor against it. For a programme that is the right level of detail. Someone has to know whether the work is tracking, and a bar on a chart answers that.
It is the wrong level for the question asked before a system can be tested, which is whether every item in it stands up. That is not a percentage. It is a list of items: which welds are still open, which valve is short a record, and what has to happen before each one closes. A percentage cannot be interrogated. The evidence sits a level below the task, against items the task does not carry.
The platform earns its place. It runs the programme, and a programme is a sequence of dates. A system is signed on evidence, and that evidence is held one spool, one valve and one weld at a time.
With the spool, the valve and the weld as the unit
- Every weld in a system still open, and what is holding each
- Weld W-0110's rejection, the repair and the re-test
- That its fit-up hold was bypassed, and the day it happened
- The report behind a result: who tested, to what procedure
- A system's status, read off the spools, valves and welds in it
With the task as the unit
- "Piping, 72% installed"
- Records assembled at the end, chasing missing certificates
- Radiography filed by film number, not by joint
- A hold signed off last Tuesday, typed in this morning
- A certificate nobody can tie back to the item it belongs to
The MDR the contract already asked for
A live MDR is not a nice-to-have. Most contracts of any size already require the Manufacturer's Data Report to be built up as the work proceeds, rather than assembled once the work is done. Many do not work that way. The records exist, in the fabricator's folders, in the inspection contractor's reports, on somebody's phone, and the last month of the job goes on collecting them. FOC Capture tracks every record against its element and its tags from the beginning, so what you hand over is comprehensive rather than reassembled. It is added to the MDR as it is signed, which takes that work off the end of the job.
The same requirements expect a record to still be findable long afterwards, by someone who was not there when it was made. A joint that is opened up in fifteen years has to produce its history. The ISO 19650 container convention was written to answer that, by making the name itself say what the record is. FOC Capture names the records it generates, built from the job data rather than typed: the project, the document type, the author and the revision are all in the name. It does not rename anything you bring. Isometrics numbered to the operator's own scheme keep those numbers: confirm one and the as-built honours it. The identity never changes once it is assigned. Only the status and revision move, from work in progress through sign-off to the locked as-constructed record.
Container codes this work uses
UTL Utilities and services. The system code for piping systemsSTR Structures, where the record is about supports and steelworkIT The inspection and test record for a spool, valve or weldCE Certificates: welder qualifications, procedures, materialNC A non-conformance raised against a jointPH Photo evidence sheets against the weld numberRP The conformance report compiled for a system