Shipboard repair quality inspection SOP
A shipboard repair quality inspection SOP for ship-repair yards: technician self-check, independent QA/QC inspection, conditional NDT verification, class surveyor sign-off, and customer acceptance before the record is filed and closed out.
How it works
Match the lanes to who actually signs off in your yard
The lanes here are Technician, QA/QC, Class Surveyor and Customer because that's who has independent authority to accept or reject the work. If your yard adds a separate NDT contractor or a production manager gate, give them their own lane rather than folding them into QA/QC — the People column only tells a useful story if the lane matches the person actually doing the step.
Keep the rework loop pointed at self-inspection, not at intake
Every failure branch — the technician's own check, the QA/QC acceptance decision, and the customer's rejection — routes back to the same self-inspection step rather than back to the start row. A failed repair needs re-checking, not re-scheduling. If you add more failure points, route them the same way so a defect doesn't quietly reset the job's history.
Set the NDT threshold explicitly, don't leave it implied
The decision after QA/QC inspection exists because not every repair needs ultrasonic or magnetic-particle testing, only weld and structural work does. Name your yard's actual threshold in the branch labels so a new QA/QC hire applies the same rule a ten-year veteran would.
Make class surveyor attendance conditional, not universal
Most repairs never see a class surveyor; only the items the classification society designates as class-relevant do. Keep that as its own decision rather than a fixed step in every job, or you'll be booking — and paying for — surveyor time on jobs that never needed it.
Fill in People and Workload as you adapt this
Assign a named owner and an hours estimate to every step before you publish the template internally. The workload BI panel reads those two columns directly, and a step with no person or no hours is invisible to it, not zero.
Frequently asked questions
Why does the flow send a failed repair all the way back to self-inspection instead of straight back to QA/QC?
Because the defect was found downstream, whatever caused it likely also affected the technician's own check. Re-running self-inspection first catches anything the technician can fix in-house before requesting QA/QC time a second time, instead of using an inspector to find the same thing twice.
Does every repair need NDT?
No. Most repairs don't. Weld and structural work goes through ultrasonic or magnetic-particle testing and dimensional measurement; a cosmetic or non-structural repair goes straight to the QA/QC acceptance decision.
When does a class surveyor get involved?
Only when the repair is a class-relevant item under the vessel's classification society rules, the kind of structural or safety-critical work that affects the ship's certificate. That decision branches to bring the surveyor in only for those jobs; everything else goes straight to the customer.
What happens if the customer rejects the finished repair?
A rejection loops back into the same defect path as a failed QA/QC acceptance: it raises a defect, returns the job to the workshop for rework, and re-enters self-inspection. It doesn't create a separate, undocumented redo.
Can this template be used outside ship repair?
The lane structure, a producer, an independent quality check, conditional verification, conditional specialist sign-off, and customer acceptance, fits any shop-floor repair or manufacturing rework process with a regulator-equivalent gate. Rename the lanes and the class surveyor step becomes any specialist inspection your process actually requires.