Consulting
Design Reviews

Design reviews through third-party audits are essential quality control activities to ensure facilities and processes are designed according to engineering best practices.

Design reviews are an imperative part of facility construction and maintenance. MISTRAS offers a variety of design reviews, including third-party audits, to help clients determine key details about their projects, ranging from detecting design flaws to establishing project timelines. Clients in the oil & gas, petrochemical, and other process industries benefit from having licensed, engineering experts help to ensure that their assets and facilities are operating at their optimal capacity. 

Third-Party Audits

Third-party audits act as quality control for systems, components, and equipment throughout the engineering design process. These audits follow customer-specific requirements and are administered independently to provide an accurate report. Third-party audits occur before systems are in place to prevent major discrepancies in working operating units.

Quality control is typically referred to as the adherence of a manufactured product to required specifications. However, third-party audits are another equally important type of quality assurance that deals with performing audits not on products, but on engineering design.

Cost Savings and True Value

Operational challenges faced by owner companies, contractors, and equipment manufacturers have resulted in lower levels of human resources and experience than in the past. These developments require new approaches and solutions to maintain proper performance and quality control.

MISTRAS' design audits provide benefits in two ways:

• Cost and time associated with our performance of an engineering design audit are minimal when compared with the potential adverse impact undiscovered discrepancies can have on operating units.
• Fees and expenses for performing engineering design audits offer considerable savings when compared to the direct and indirect costs of maintaining an effective in-house engineering quality control organization.

Third-Party Audit Scope

MISTRAS Engineering Services delivers reviews free of bias for or against any product or technology. Where design alternatives are indicated, we make recommendations based on practicability and technical excellence.

Based on the needs of an engineering situation, a design audit may focus on a small number of critical equipment items, or applied on a wider basis to the design for an entire project. In the latter case, carefully-developed screening procedures are used to check contractor and vendor performance on a sampling basis. If discrepancies are found in a particular area, increased attention is directed, and corrective actions are recommended as appropriate.

We've developed plans and executed engineering design audits for major capital projects worldwide in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and North America.