Rigging Inspections: Mazzella’s Inspectors, Reports, and Scheduling

0:00 – Intro

My name is Tom Horner. I am the corporate rigging inspection manager with Mazzella Lifting Technologies.

0:08 – How Tom Horner was tasked with building the division

Around 1998, I was given the opportunity to start the inspections group as a formal group. Back then, inspections consisted of basically just looking at alloy chain slings. ASME standards weren’t written at that time. Over the years, we’ve evolved into the unit we are today with inspectors across about half the country.

0:30 – Our rigging inspectors are certified by ITI’s rigging inspectors course

I think today what makes our inspectors a little bit more relevant to the requirements is that we put them through formal training, one we go through ITI for the certified inspector course. Our group this is all that they do each and everyday.

0:45 – From big steel and automotive plants to small operations, we can handle it

Last year alone, we did over 1,700 inspections, working from anywhere in the automotive world, to the steel mill world, all the way down to the mom and pop machine shop.

0:53 – The difference between annual and periodic inspections

Customers come to us for inspections and the first thing they’ll ask for is, “I need my annual inspection.” If I were to say that doing an inspection once a year was okay, I wouldn’t be fully educating the customer. That’s where I try to break it down and say, “A periodic inspection could be multiple things.” It could be quarterly, semi-annual, bi-annual. Law and standard is what it is. It’s law and standard; there is no deviation from that.

1:26 – Our vetting process to ensure your inspectors are qualified and competent

What makes our inspectors different, when we are looking for candidates, we are looking for professional, timely, detail-oriented, self-driven individuals in order to satisfy these roles.

1:40 – How our inspectors are singularly focused

Well, our inspectors go through a course, and they get certified. And that’s all they do. All they do is below-the-hook rigging inspections.

1:45 – What happens after the rigging inspection is complete

Once the inspection is completed, the inspector will usually reach out to me. We’ll have a conversation on what he found, the results. We’ll go over the report, and then we’ll send the report over one to two business days after the inspection. And then we can continue on with the customer to see what they would like to do.

2:00 – Our inspection group runs a tight ship

We run a very tight ship. I have three inspectors I’m always pulling from, you know, from the Cleveland area for inspectors as needed. We do the best we can to accommodate everybody. And if they have to work an extra long day, our guys are willing to do it. Our reports are very easy to read. Um, any questions, again, you know, the customer can reach out to me, the lifting specialist.

2:26 – We track your inspection frequency so you don’t have to

We set our inspection frequencies in our system so the customer doesn’t have to worry about when their next periodic inspection is due, whether that inspection is done once a year, twice a year, quarterly, or monthly. I reach out to them at least four weeks in advance to get that scheduled.

2:51 – Our first time at your shop will be to understand your business

We’re there to, for one, make sure they’re using the right slings, hardware, and to give them a little bit of knowledge. First thing we do is, we’ll find where the contact is, might have to ask around, and then we meet face-to-face, explain to them what’s going to happen. Especially if it’s new, we might go in there and knock out their whole entire slings, hardware, because they’ve never had one done. Mazzella has a nice header on the report that they give the customers, and explains it all to them, so I’ll pull that out of my folder and I’ll show it to them, and then go from there. It doesn’t matter if we’re in a large steel mill, looking at 3,000 pieces of rigging in a week, or if we’re at our smallest inspection looking at 10 items. We’re going to treat it all very seriously. So if you’re looking for an inspection company, you’re going to want one that knows the laws and standards, has your documented training for your inspectors, and has a proactive program in place to ensure that all your periodic inspections are being satisfied moving forward. Mazzella is that company.