Auditing a vendor's capability: products, equipment, people, records

1. What a capability audit covers

Any vendor can present well in a meeting. An audit asks for evidence instead, in four areas: products, equipment, people and records. Keep the four areas separate in your notes. Weak vendors are often strong in one area and vague in the others, and the vagueness shows you where the risk sits.

This checklist is the practical next step after our guide to choosing an online valve maintenance provider. It applies to any vendor, including us. Number the questions for your calls, because vague answers stand out against a numbered list. We would rather be audited than trusted.

2. Products: origin, compatibility and traceability

Start with origin. Ask who makes the cleaner, lubricant or sealant, and where. We manufacture ours in-house, which makes batch questions simple to answer. A reseller may not know, and that matters when a result needs tracing.

Then test service compatibility. Tell the vendor your valve runs in dry gas, and listen. Organic sealants can harden in dry gas and seize valves, so a careful vendor should ask about your service before naming a product. Vague assurances are a warning sign.

Finally, check provenance and documentation. Supply chains for valve products carry a counterfeit risk, so ask how the vendor controls it; our notes on avoiding counterfeit valve products list the checks. To compare products properly, request the product guide through an enquiry.

3. Equipment condition and preparedness

Equipment tells you how a vendor works, not just what they own. Ask what guns and pumps they use for sealant injection, and how that equipment is maintained. Then ask what spares travel with the crew. We carry minor and major service kits for each gun model, so a worn part does not end a job.

Two details are worth extra attention:

1. Ask how injection pressure is controlled and watched on the job, and how the crew respects fitting ratings during stem injection.
2. Ask whether their pumps can record the amount injected. Our pneumatic pumps carry customised stroke counters, which turns each treatment into a number you can audit later.

For a fuller picture of what a crew should carry, see our guide to the complete field kit for online valve service.

4. Questions that test the people

People are hardest to audit, so use test questions with known answers. Ask what usually fails on a plant's valve population. A risk-based valve integrity study of upstream and midstream sites, published by Valve World, reported 61% passing, 28% seized, 6% external leakage and 5% other, though distributions vary by population. A competent engineer should talk in these terms.

Then ask two harder questions:

1. What do you do when injection will not help? An honest answer names assessment or replacement, not persistence.
2. How do you approach emergency isolation under body fill? The only acceptable answer describes a specialised and higher-risk procedure, performed by trained specialists, assessed case by case.

Watch what the vendor asks you. A capable one asks about your fittings, your permit system and any OEM limits before recommending any treatment.

5. Records and acceptance evidence

Ask to see a real job report, with client names removed. It should record the valve, the products and batches, the amounts injected, and the pressure response. Reports that show controlled amounts, watched pressures and stop points indicate a disciplined crew. A report that only says the valve was fixed proves little.

Then ask how sealing was proven. Sound, movement and pressure behaviour are screening evidence; they indicate, but do not confirm. The confirming test is a seat-leak test under agreed conditions. Examples include pressure decay across the closed valve, double block and bleed monitoring, or a witnessed leak test. A capable vendor will say that API 598 and ISO 5208 are factory acceptance references, and will not offer them as field results.

Certifications are systems evidence. We are ISO certified, but certification shows a management system; it does not prove any single job. Our article on what ISO certification tells you sets out the limits.

For deeper checks, see our guidance on asking for references and case history.

6. The site visit and a first job

A site visit completes the audit. Observe a job with the crew if you can, or visit their base and inspect the store. Watch three things: how the job is planned under your permit system, whether the crew checks fittings before connecting, and how they decide to stop work.

You can also start small instead of signing a contract. A condition survey on a sample of valves is a low-risk first engagement. It shows a vendor's methods directly; see what our valve condition survey service covers. A supervised treatment on one valve works too, where the design and your permits allow it. When a trial does not go to plan, the response tells you a great deal; see what a failed trial tells you.