Some Commercial Order Mills (COMs) Are Hurting Their Clients And Their Field Inspectors

 Some of the Commercial Order Mills (COMs) are hurting their clients and their field service inspectors. I came across a commercial inspection being offered for $30 to the inspector. The $30 for the inspection would not even pay for the gas and the one-way drive time to to the inspection site … a huge multi-million dollar manufacturing facility. The inspector did not feel qualified to perform the structural inspection. I told the inspector that the job was priced extremely low and that the inspector did not have the required training or experience to perform the inspection. The report would be of no use to the client. It would not protect the client. The report would not properly investigate and describe the risk. I will not say too much more about the inspection other than it required significant structural engineering training and experience.

I called a commercial engineering consulting group who performed these types of inspections. Their response was that the inspection tasks specified required an educated and experienced structures engineer … demanded by the state … for such comprehensive inspections. They said that they would not touch the job for less that $5,000.

Is is these types of stories that show the damage caused to both the COMs client and the field service inspector. The COMs client is not getting a good product and the field inspector is actually losing money by accepting the task. The inspection results will be horrible … of no value to the client. Don’t take a job if you are not qualified to perform the inspection. If you are qualified, be sure to price your work so that you make a reasonable profit. This field inspection was so poorly outsourced and badly priced that it was outrageous.