When hiring a contractor to do work on railroad equipment it is always a great idea to vet the company you are planning to contract with. During this process, one of the most important questions almost never asked is, “What do you do when things go wrong?” Even the best companies make mistakes; the measure of a good contractor is their ability to handle the unexpected.

In the world of ASME Code boilers and pressure vessels, the Code actually requires manufacturers to address mistakes in their quality control systems. These incidents are referred to as nonconformities in most quality systems. A nonconformity is just that, some aspect of a project has run astray of the Code, the manufacturer’s quality system, the design package or the customer’s specifications. The incident is documented and a path forward is agreed to by the manufacturer and customer and accepted by the Authorized Inspector. For other types of contractors, a formal quality system may not be in place, but it should still be part of the company’s culture.

When problems arise, it is never productive to start pointing fingers. If the problem is small and can be handled in-house, good contractors will simply handle the issue and not involve the customer. If something happens that will affect delivery or will require a design change or impact the project in some other significant way, then the customer must be involved. It is important to remember that the customer and contractor are on the same team and want to achieve the same goal. A discussion of the technical issues will illuminate the path forward.