The supplier asks for a derogation on the material. Accepting it can buy you six weeks or cost you testing. You have to respond in a few days and no one in the company has already dealt with that case.
Descoltech's industrial technical consultancy is needed exactly in these moments: project engineers, material technicians and QA/QC coordinators evaluate the issue, tell you what each option entails and help you motivate the choice towards the supplier or end customer.
In industrial orders, technical decisions never come at a convenient time. They arrive when production has started, the margin has already been defined and there is no time to deepen. It is under those conditions that exceptions are accepted that no one will read again until testing.
Those who have to decide have partial information in their hands, often provided by those who have an interest in only one of the options. Postponing is not neutral: each day of waiting moves the decision closer to the point where the alternative no longer exists.
Most of the problems that explode in testing arise months earlier, in an ambiguous purchase specification, incomplete or copied from a different order. Reviewing a specification before the order is issued costs a fraction of what it costs to manage the consequences of a specification that didn't say what was needed.
A technical decision taken verbally and never formalized does not protect anyone. If you are the one who has taken it, you are the one who has to justify it, and months later. Our assessments are written and justified against applicable standards, specifications and contractual requirements. They become part of the technical document management and the order dossier, they do not remain in an email.
Accepting a waiver, changing material or modifying a requirement does not only affect the component. It can change delivery times, costs, testing methods and responsibilities between the parties. That's why we evaluate each option considering the entire order, so that the fastest solution today doesn't become the most expensive problem tomorrow.
We work with EPC contractors, plant and component manufacturers, oil and gas and petrochemical companies, energy operators, shipyards, railway companies and metalworking companies. The roles that involve us are engineering managers, quality managers, QA/QC managers, project managers, procurement managers and technical directors.
On the experience available in the company at that time
The decision is postponed because no one takes it
An email, a phone call, a memory
Qualified on the basis of declared references
Reconstructing why it was taken is difficult
On an assessment of those who have already handled that case
A response in the time that the order imposes
A written and motivated evaluation, which can be attached to the dossier
Qualified on verification of real processes and capabilities
The technical rationale is already documented
The riskiest choices often come when production has already started: derogations to be approved, materials to be replaced, ambiguous specifications or suppliers to be qualified. Industrial technical advice reduces decision-making risk by evaluating consequences, constraints and alternatives, so as to transform an urgent choice into a motivated and documented technical decision.
It is the specialist support that supports the company in technical decisions related to supplies, materials, specifications and quality processes. It includes the review of purchase specifications, feasibility analyses, supplier qualification, evaluation of waivers and deviations, and coordination of order QA/QC activities. It does not concern the design of a plant, but the decisions that accompany its construction and supply.
In common use, the two terms overlap, but indicate different activities. Engineering consultancy in the strict sense concerns design: calculations, sizing, technical drawings, development of solutions. Industrial technical consultancy, on the other hand, intervenes downstream of the project, on its implementation: verifying that the specification is adequate, that the supplier is able to carry it out, that the changes proposed during the work are acceptable. It is a decision-making support, not a design one.
Technical consulting works on materials, specifications, suppliers, quality processes and order decisions. The object is always a product or a production process. Management consulting, on the other hand, works on the organization and management of the company: control systems, internal processes, management tools. They are two distinct areas, with different skills and interlocutors. If your problem is about how the company is run and not how a supply is made, the other page is the one you need.
It is the preventive verification that a supply is achievable under the conditions provided: technical requirements, materials, tolerances, applicable regulations, times and supplier capabilities. It is needed before committing contractually, when changing a requirement costs one line and not a renegotiation. The outcome is not a yes or no, but a list of critical points and conditions under which the supply becomes sustainable.
QA and QC indicate two distinct functions: quality assurance, which defines how activities must be carried out and verified, and quality control, which verifies in the field that they have been carried out. The order support oversees both: definition of control plans, consistency of procedures, execution of the required checks, management of surveys up to closure. Field activities may include industrial technical inspections and non-destructive testing. It is useful when the job requires a quality structure that the organization does not have internally or does not have available at that time.