At Our shop ( Cabin Creek Timber Frames) we have a site license from timber products inspections to grade timbers. They came out and trained all the employees to grade timbers. Then they come out once a month and grade our grading. We must pass with a minimum of 95% correct to continue the site license. In return we get the TPI grade stamps for our shop and we can either stamp the timbers as graded or issue letters to building officials that the timbers have been graded by TPI. While this may raise an issue of conflict of interest with some. I feel that with us grading the timbers it makes us look at each stick more closely and in return for the extra work ( 5 minutes each stick) we put out a product that not only looks good but is structurally sound.