API Specification 20B....Qualification of Procurement Sources for Starting Material

Specification 20B: Open Die Forgings for use in the Petroleum and Natural Gas Industry. 1st Edition Published April 2013.  Purchasing Guidelines  5.1 Qualification of Procurement Sources for Starting Material 5.1.1 Only melt source facilities that are approved by the forging supplier shall be used to supply starting material such as billet or ingot material. The forging supplier shall have a documented procedure, fully implemented, for qualifying starting material suppliers for each specific size and grade of starting material. The approval process shall be based on both a quality assurance and a technical eval‎uation. The approval process shall establish the methodology by which the starting material supplier will be eval‎uated on an ongoing basis to maintain their status as an approved supplier.    5.1.2 The maintenance of an acceptable quality program, such as an ISO registration, is not sufficient by itself to satisfy the requirements of 5.1.1. Documented evidence that a starting material supplier has a historical and ongoing technical capability of producing materials meeting this standard and who has proven, implemented procedures and capabilities in place to consistently produce acceptable product is a minimum requirement. Options for the technical approval of a starting material supplier include one or more of the following. a) Supplier experience over an extended period of time. Demonstration of acceptable experience shall include tests/inspections, quantity of material received, nonconformance analysis, etc. b) On‐site technical audit at scheduled 3 year intervals. A new supplier shall be subject to an onsite technical audit, which includes the controls addressed in 5.1.3..................