Quality assurance (QA) of third party engineering services
On basis of our skills we are able to verify engineering services in the fields
- fluid and thermodynamics
- structural and stress mechanics
with a high degree of reliability.
For this reason we offer nuclear power plant operators the quality assurance of third party engineering services when retrofitting safety-relevant plant components. Beside the safety-relevant aspects costs and saving of time are factors which will determine your decision.
It is known from your and our daily activity, that mistakes in engineering services force extensive revisions of the quality assurance documents once they are recognized in the verification by the prescribed evaluator. If these revisions then result in a tightening of the boundary conditions and higher loads, great software expenditure is required in order to prove the safe design. Is however the software proof not successful, hardware measures are to be carried out with all resulting consequences. The implications are non-compliance with scheduling and cost explosion.
By our QA-offer you as operator are exculpated from your QA-responsibility and the probability of such scenarios is reduced drastically.
By an early decision for an accompanying quality assurance error sources – e.g. in the boundary conditions - can already be recognized previously and eliminated without additional expenditures. But also the post-processing by quality assurance is relevant and guarantees a high degree of reliability for evaluator audit and operation. A quality assurance by an independent partner leads often to a constructive exchange of ideas which not only reduces errors but also leads to better solutions.
The costs of an external quality assurance depend in each case on the scale of activity; however, our experience has shown that such costs generally make up 1-2% of the total costs allocated for the refitting project.
Of course we possess a certification of suitability for quality assurance according to KTA 1401 and we are certified subject to DIN EN ISO 9001:2008.