ITP & Quality Requirements Walkthrough
Book a free call. Be confident every requirement is met before the customer or TPI shows up.
For manufacturers who just won — or are bidding — a contract that needs a formal ITP. Without a dedicated quality team. Whether it's your first one or a requirement you've struggled with before.
Years on the customer side — third-party inspection, reviewing manufacturers' quality programs against contract requirements.
You don't need another inspector. You need someone to translate what your customer's quality requirements actually mean, for a team that's never dealt with an ITP before.
You don't need to hire a quality department to win and keep a contract that requires ITP compliance. You need someone who's translated these requirements before to walk you through this one.
What's at stake
An ITP isn't paperwork. It's what your customer checks your work against.
Get it wrong and it shows up at the worst time. The fix isn't harder work. It's knowing what's actually required before anyone shows up to check.
Rework
Work gets held or redone because it doesn't match what the customer actually required.
Delays
The contract slips while you figure out the documentation and traceability after the fact.
A failed review
Problems surface at the customer's final document review, or when the TPI is on the floor.
What translation looks like
A real example: Hold points vs. Witness points.
Two common designations on customer ITPs. One stops your floor cold. The other doesn't. Teams that don't know the difference either stop work when they didn't have to — or blow past a Hold point and fail the audit.
In the customer's ITP
"A manufacturing, testing or service activity where it is required that an authorized representative is present to observe the activity… If not present, the activity may only start on written authorization (waiver) to proceed."
What it actually means for your team
- —Do not proceed without them. Work cannot start until the representative is standing there, or you have a signed, written waiver in hand.
- —Advance notice is mandatory. Miss the notification window and your floor sits idle waiting on them.
- —If you work past a Hold point without a waiver, that work cannot be accepted. It's an immediate non-conformance.
In the customer's ITP
"An activity where it is required that an independent party verifies during execution… Once proper notification is given, the process can proceed with or without the presence of a representative after the designated amount of time has passed."
What it actually means for your team
- —You don't have to wait forever. Give the required notice. If the clock runs out and they don't show, you can proceed and keep production moving.
- —The documentation proof is the notification itself. Log when notice was sent so you can prove the window was honored.
- —Teams who confuse this with a Hold point shut down their line for days waiting on an inspector who was never going to come.
The walkthrough does this for your entire ITP.
Clause by clause, point by point — so your shop floor knows exactly when to stop, when to keep running, what paper to keep, and what to have ready before the customer or TPI arrives.
What a gap-check looks like
The gaps that cause rejections — found before the customer finds them.
These are the most common. Any one of them can cause a rejection, rework, and lost time. The gap-check walks your process against the ITP and flags each one.
The ITP was never negotiated.
You accepted the customer's ITP as written. Some points may not match how you actually build.
→A point you could have raised up front becomes a rejection at delivery.
The ITP isn't being followed on the floor.
The plan exists on paper. The shop floor isn't working to it. Work gets done, then someone tries to backfill the records.
→Records that don't match the work won't pass review.
Inspection notifications were missed.
The notice to the customer or TPI wasn't sent inside the required window.
→A missed notification can void the inspection point and force a redo.
Inspection procedures weren't followed.
The steps the ITP calls for weren't done in order, or weren't done at all.
→Skipped or out-of-order steps are a direct non-conformance.
Documentation is wrong or incomplete.
Part numbers, equipment numbers, serial numbers, required photos, sign-offs. Any of these missing or incorrect and the record doesn't match the work.
→Wrong documentation is one of the most common reasons for rejection.
The gap-check finds these before the customer or TPI does.
So you fix them on your schedule — not under a rejection, rework, and lost time.
How it works
What the walkthrough covers.
Plain-language translation
I sit down with your team. We walk through what your customer's ITP and quality clauses actually require. In language your people can act on.
Gap-check your current process
I point out where your current process has gaps. So you know what to fix before anyone from outside evaluates it.
Minimum documentation & traceability
Help setting up the minimum documentation and traceability you'll need. Enough to satisfy the requirement. Nothing you don't.
Pre-inspection readiness pass
A readiness pass before the customer or TPI shows up. The leverage is always getting it right before they arrive.
What this is
- Plain-language translation of what the customer's ITP and quality clauses actually require.
- A gap-check of your current process against that.
- Help setting up the minimum documentation and traceability you'll need.
- A pre-inspection readiness pass before the customer or TPI shows up.
- Strictly review and guidance for your team.
What this is not
- I do not inspect.
- I do not sign off on anything.
- By default, I do not interact with your customer or the TPI.
- If clarifying a position with the TPI comes up, I'd steer you away from it. TPIs witness and report. They don't decide anything on your project.
The background
I've been on the other side of this.
I spent years on the customer side. Doing third-party inspection. Reviewing manufacturers' quality programs against contract requirements.
Now I use that to help manufacturers without a dedicated quality team. I sit down with your people. Walk through what your customer's ITP and quality requirements actually mean. Point out where your current process has gaps.
If clarifying a position with the TPI comes up, I'd steer you away from it. TPIs witness and report. They don't decide anything on your project. The leverage is always getting it right before they show up.
Engagements
Three ways to work together.
Quality Advisory
$200/hour
2-hour minimum
Hourly guidance for a specific question, clause, or gap you're working through right now.
Book a callQuality Advisory Day
$1,500/day
Up to 8 hours
A full day with your people. We walk through the ITP and quality requirements end to end.
Book a callProject Quality Readiness Review
Quoted by scope
Typically $2,000–$5,000
A structured readiness review across the contract before the customer or TPI shows up.
Book a callBook a call — free
Book a free call.
The first call is free. No cost, no commitment. We talk through what you're working with and where you're stuck.
I spent years on the customer side. Doing third-party inspection. Reviewing manufacturers' quality programs against contract requirements. Now I help manufacturers without a dedicated quality team.
I will not be the inspector. I don't interact with your customer or their TPI. This is strictly guidance for your team. So everyone understands what's expected before anyone from outside evaluates it.