Published 15 Aug 2023
What is an Incoming Inspection?
An incoming inspection, also known as a receiving inspection or material inspection, validates the quality of purchased raw materials based on set acceptance criteria. It is performed by quality assurance personnel in the manufacturing facility to resolve quality issues during pre-production. Incoming inspection results follow an identification tagging system to determine required actions when an item is tagged as accepted, conditionally accepted, or rejected.
In this article
- Why Use Incoming Inspection Checklists?
- Understanding the Identification Tagging System
- SafetyCulture Incoming Inspection Checklist App
- Featured Incoming Inspection Checklists
Why Use Incoming Inspection Checklists?
Taking advantage of a mobile-ready incoming inspection checklist helps ensure the conformity of raw materials to purchase order specifications, reduce production costs, and manufacture high-quality products that meet or even exceed quality standards, customer expectations, and safety regulations.
Understanding the Identification Tagging System
An incoming inspection checklist details exactly what quality assurance personnel should be validating—size, color, shape, markings, and packaging of sample material from the entire batch. The identification tagging system is used during the process of incoming quality control to express the acceptance criteria specified in the purchase order.
Each inspection result corresponds to the following actions:
Incoming Inspection Identification Tagging System
Accepted
Place the accepted materials in stock or forward them to the next operation. When all raw materials or purchased components meet quality standards, manufacturers usually proceed with the first production run and perform a First Article Inspection (FAI) to confirm that the manufacturing process produces output that meets design requirements.
Conditionally Accepted
Quality inspectors should keep an eye out for minor or major defects such as functional and dimensional deviations, shipping damages, and improper markings to determine if the raw materials can be conditionally accepted. Specify the conditions for acceptance such as rework or replacement by the supplier and ascertain that the quality manager and a supplier representative sign in agreement.
Rejected
Quality inspectors should issue a Non-Conformance Report (NCR) for rejected materials and indicate if they will be scrapped, sorted, or reassessed against more specific acceptance criteria. Rejecting materials may cause shortages and destabilize the production schedule, but it prevents costly manufacturing problems such as mass-producing unsafe and defective products.
SafetyCulture Incoming Inspection Checklist App
SafetyCulture (formerly iAuditor), the world’s most powerful inspection checklist and quality app, can help easily tag raw materials as accepted, conditionally accepted, or rejected and immediately resolve quality issues during pre-production. With SafetyCulture, you can:
- Perform incoming inspections offline or online
- Capture photo evidence of tagged raw materials
- Schedule regular inspections and quality audits
- Assign actions for non-conforming items
- Automatically generate and share reports
- Gather digital signatures to authenticate results
To help you get started, here are 3 of the best incoming inspection checklists you can download and customize for free.
Featured Incoming Inspection Checklists
Receiving Inspection Checklist
A receiving inspection checklist is used to assess newly-delivered materials from the supplier and either accept or reject them based on their condition. This checklist serves as a guide for quality assurance personnel in performing the receiving inspection procedure, which are as follows:
- Provide vital information such as: supplier name & address, purchase order number, and item details.
- Visually check for signs of shipping damages and provide photo evidence by attaching photos of the item
- Test if functions meet the declared specifications
- Check if dimensions are according to specifications
- Provide comments of defectives (if any)
- Validate the inspection by signing off with the name and signature of the respective personnel handling the inspection.
This template is customizable and can add more questions for the acceptance criteria and ensure the good working condition of materials to be used for manufacturing your products.
Material Inspection Report Form
A material inspection report form is used by material controllers to properly document the acceptance or rejection of purchased materials through defined characteristics such as nondestructive examination, functional test, and verification of source inspection result. Easily gather the digital signatures of the manufacturing engineer and supplier representative with this paperless material inspection report form and automatically share the report to the quality manager the moment a material inspection is completed.
