A part arrives, it looks right, and it goes onto the shelf. Three months later someone asks whether that delivery was the one with the revised seal, and there is nothing on file that settles it. The cost of answering the question does not come from the part — it comes from the record that was never made.
Inspection is often treated as a judgement about a part. What actually prevents disputes is something narrower: a record of what arrived, when, from where, and against what.
Why the record matters more than the opinion
An opinion about a part is worth what the person who holds it is worth. A record is worth what it documents. When a question is raised months later — a fit problem, a suspected duplicate supply, a recall notice on a batch — the records that answer it are the ones made at goods-in, before anyone had a reason to look.
Before anything is opened
Record the consignment as it arrived, not as it was unpacked.
- The carrier's tracking reference and the date of receipt
- The outer packaging condition, photographed, with the label legible in the same frame
- The number of packages received against the number on the delivery note
- Any visible damage, recorded before the packaging is disturbed
A photograph taken after unpacking cannot show what the packaging looked like on arrival, and that gap is where most freight-damage claims are decided.
The paperwork that has to agree
Four documents matter, and they have to agree with each other and with the goods:
| Document | What it establishes |
|---|---|
| Delivery note | What the supplier says was sent |
| Packing list | How it was packed and in what quantities |
| Conformity or release document | What the supplier says about the part's status |
| Certificate or tag on the item | What it says on the part itself |
Where these disagree, the disagreement is the finding. Record it as received rather than reconciling it informally, because the informal reconciliation is the one that cannot be reconstructed later.
Part-level checks
Once the packaging is open, the checks are mostly identity checks rather than measurements.
- Part number on the item against the part number ordered
- Part number against the accompanying documentation
- Serial number or batch number, where the item carries one, recorded in full
- Quantity counted, not accepted from the paperwork
- Condition noted: corrosion, seal damage, thread condition, evidence of prior fitting
- Shelf-life or cure-date items dated and flagged where they will expire in stores
When something does not line up
Take the record first and the decision second. A discrepancy that is documented on the day and raised the same day is an ordinary commercial matter. The same discrepancy raised after the part has been issued is a different conversation, and it is a harder one.
Record what is there. Do not tidy it into what was expected. A record that has been adjusted to match the paperwork cannot later be used to challenge it.
The record itself
One page is usually enough, provided it is filled in the same way every time: consignment references, dates, quantities, part numbers, documentation received, checks performed, discrepancies, and the name of the person who signed it off. The format matters less than the consistency, because the value comes from being able to compare one delivery against another years apart.