What is "expediting"

Expedite \Ex"pe*dite\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Expedited; p. pr. & vb. n. Expediting.]

1. To relieve of impediments; to facilitate; to accelerate the process or progress of; to hasten; to quicken; as, to expedite the growth of plants.

   To expedite your glorious march.
   --Milton.

2. To despatch; to send forth; to issue officially.

   Such charters be expedited of course.
   --Bacon.

vb. (present participle of expedite English)

With project deadline and schedules being calculated with less and fewer areas for delay of any kind, professional expediting resources became a key a part of winning project completion. The old fashioned approach of beginning the expediting method once the order is already in delay isn't any longer doubtless to lead to timely delivery. Project groups have come back to understand the importance of coming up with expediting activities in conjunction with their inspection activities. Expediting is a concept in purchasing and project management for securing the quality and timely delivery of goods and components.

The procurement department or an external expeditor controls the progress of manufacturing at the supplier concerning quality, packing, conformity with standards and set timelines. Thus the expeditor makes sure that the required goods arrive at the appointed date in the agreed quality at the agreed location.

Expediting is especially needed in large scale projects, for example, when a power plant or a refinery is erected, because of a delay caused by late delivery or inferior quality will get very expensive and could lead to unsatisfied clients, thus the loss of a project. To save these unnecessary costs and minimize potential risks, the supplier and customer may agree on the use of a third party expediter. These are experts from companies specializing in this field who keep track of the deadlines, supervise progress on site and check whether the components are properly packed. After inspection they notify the involved parties and banks about their findings; if everything is as agreed the bank will initiate the transfer of the price of the goods to the supplier. In this way, the supplier secures his liquidity as he is paid immediately when the components leave his factory ( letter of credit) and the customer/bank knows that the goods will be delivered correctly. Expediting is relevant for many industries, such as the oil and gas industry, the general energy industry and the infrastructure industry.

Expediting exists in several levels:

• production control: The expeditor inspects the factory whether the production is up to the standards of the country the goods are destined for. This is especially necessary for food or engineering equipment like power plant components. He or she controls as well whether the regular audits for ISO 9001 etc. have been made.
• quality control: The components are tested whether they function as required and whether they are made to the measurements and standards of the customer. A part of this quality control can be the testing for compliance with standards of the destination country, e.g. ASME.
• packing/transport survey: This is the lowest and most used level of expediting, as the goods are only counted and the packing is controlled whether it will withstand the adversities of transport ( pre-shipment inspection).
• project management: At a large-scale project, not only goods are controlled. The expediter also keeps an eye on the deadlines and milestones of the project and whether the supplier will be on time. This way he or she monitors the crucial procurement parts of the project.

As the different levels of expediting require different skills, specialists and laboratories, many third party expediters specialize in only one or several of these levels, while few offer expediting services on all levels.

Larger companies normally have their own expediters who can perform all four levels. Third parties then are only used when in-house capacity is overstretched or a neutral third party is needed. But In case of some big companies if the no. of project running same time, Big companies use third party expediters also.

Most of the time companies use third party inspector -cum- expediters who is responsible for inspection of critical items as well as expediting. In strict quality controls conditions, those quality inspectors cum expediters will give importance to quality work than to expediting work which finally may not be useful technique to get expediting work completed.