What kind of vendors can I put in a vendor list for steelmaking plant

EAF-LF. (ferro-alloys ?- refractory ? scrap steel (?????))
Hot and Cold Rolling Mills. (vendor of back-up and finishing rools?, Measuring equipment for thickness, temperature, profile, width, flatness?)
Pickling line (vendor of Wringer rolls?, Measuring equipment for thickness?,
temperature, profile, width?, oil?, hydrochloric acid? )
Continuous Galvanising (zinc?, Measuring equipment?)
others?

thanks
By

I'm thinking any vendor that supplies anything that can affect the quality of your product.

raw materials
manufacturing equipment
measurement tools
test equipment
Calibration services
outside equipment maintenance contractors
etc

Thanks you, very much Discordian.
Somebody, with experience in quality assurance in steelmaking plant, could be more detailed?
:confused: :bigwave:

I would put all companies getting an official company order in the supplier list, rated by quality approvals and conformity of product.
Paul

Thanks Sonflowerinwales.
But which are the suppliers that have to be rated by quality approvals in a steelmaking plant?
:confused: :confused: :confused:
:bigwave:

alloys, raw materials (scrap, ore, whaterver) refractory, mold powders, replacement equipment vendors, consumable vendors, oil/lubes/hydraulics,measuring equipment, the list goes on and on. Best bet is to gather a group of people from all areas and figure out what they purchase and how important it is to customer satisfaction.

alloys, raw materials (scrap, ore, whaterver) refractory, mold powders, replacement equipment vendors, consumable vendors, oil/lubes/hydraulics,measuring equipment, the list goes on and on. Best bet is to gather a group of people from all areas and figure out what they purchase and how important it is to customer satisfaction.
Thank a lot SteelMaiden.
What's your opinion about importance of vendors of Wringer rolls of Pickling or galvanizing line?:confused: :bigwave:

I don't have any pickling or galv line experience, except some coincidental experience at a previous division. But, I would have to say that I am interpreting correctly, the failure of these rolls would definitely create nonconforming product, right? Therefore, I would have to say in our case, we would include the vendor.

But, I would have to say that I am interpreting correctly, the failure of these rolls would definitely create nonconforming product, right? .
Yes, it's right. The Wringer rolls are causing one of the major bottle necks in our Pickling and galvanizing line.

Therefore, I would have to say in our case, we would include the vendor.
:applause: Thanks a lot
By

Cavanna,

While not in steel, we run a melt shop. We separate raw materials suppliers for the actual alloy from the other consumables and services suppliers. Raw materials that actually make the alloy go with the Purchased Material Specifications manual, and we keep general Specs and vendor-specified Specs in this manual. We also keep a listing of approved suppliers for consumables that affect product quality, as well as services that affect product quality (scale calibration, lab spectrometer work, etc). I'd likely include mobile equipment suppliers and mobile equipment service providers here as well, since operations of mobile equipment in a melt shop are pretty important these days. The fairly generic things, like lubricating oils and fuel, pencils, paper, etc., that can be bought in many places are not in the list in the qms, but suppliers for these are kept up with by Purchasing.

Hi Casana, we're an iron powder producer running an EAF melt shop. We differentiate suppliers in to 4 primary categories (The amount of quality system control is related to how critical the product/service is perceived to be to our company and its products):
category 1: The material ends up in our final product. Examples are scrap, ferroalloys, alloying powders for premixes, etc. These have specifications that are approved by our quality committee, and require a lot of planning to change.

category 2: The material/product could affect our final product. Examples are refractories, industrial gases such as nitrogen & hydrogen, packaging used to ship to customers, etc. These have specifications - change to them is easier than for category 1. Transportation from our plant to customer's plants falls under this category.

category 3: Office supplies, etc. No specifications - puchase from an approved supplier.

Calibration vendors: Must be ISO Guide 17025 certified for the service they provide to us.

Where we are lacking in my opinion is control/approval within our quality system of service suppliers - examples include engineering services for building design, suppliers providing custom software/computer support to us, vendors supplying construction personnel for rebricking ladles, installing equipment, etc.

Regards,
Kevin

Kevin, great way of explaining your categories.

I myself would not put office supplies in our system, except for if we were getting forms (invoices or something) from a printer. Who cares if it is a bic stick pen or a papermate, or whether it came from Wal-Mart or Office Max?

Do you also have a category for vendors who could affect customer satisfaction? phones, computers, transportation companies? i.e. that whole infrastructure thing?

We do the category thing also. Things that go into the final product, along with the critical equipment that it goes through to become a final product. Rolls, etc. Consumables, mold powders, etc. Then the "support type" consumables, refractory, lubes, RO equipment, yada, yada. Then our infrastructure stuff, see previous paragraph for some examples.

Office supplies is not on our list, neither is janitorial services, or the cafeteria contractor, even though they can and DO have a big impact on internal customer satisfaction! :lmao:

Steel, regarding suppliers of services that could impact customer satisfaction - the only one we currently cover is transportation services - we do not address phone lines, power supply, computers, etc. (My personal opinion is we should, so far Production/Purchasing's argument is that it is too much work, won't have an affect, yada, yada - it's fine until we have a situation where we have a failure and then a major fallout from a customer. At which point it will probably be "Quality's fault". )

We consider transportation companies to be a category 2 supplier, but have set up an abbreviated approval process for them that is well documented in our quality system. To me, the largest qualifier appears to be price. We do track their performance - in fact we track all category 1 & 2 supplier's performance and calculate an annual rating for them.

There is always a lot of discussion on suppliers (single source) on why bother. There's only one place to buy power, get our phones, railway, etc. We put them on the list, with a note in the comments that they are "the only game in town".