Team,
We want control plans and FMEAs to have internal value as well as have value for our automotive customers. We are running into a problem. What do you do when the control plan and or FMEA has proprietary information such as equipment, materials and specifications etc that you cannot share due to proprietary / IP concerns? What processes have you put in place to deal with this animal?
:(

I think we've been down this road before but I can't link you to another thread right now. What software/program are you currently using for your documents? We use a software package called QPLUS and it has a "button" you can enable for proprietary information when printing out the customer's copy. This allows us to have a "customer copy" and an "internal copy" fairly readily. I think I remember a Cover or two using Excel that manually "white out" any proprietary info before sending to their customer.

As a former employee of a major Tier I to the auto industry I would suggest the following. It worked well for us. Yes we did get complaints,but they diminished with time. It is as follows :

"Institute a corporate policy that conveys that all FMEA's and control plans are proprietary." Have your corporate attorneys develop the policy and have it signed off by top management.

Signing a proprietary agreement with your customers does nothing to ensure that your information does not leave their hands. You do not have the resources to monitor them.

Maintain the following :

"The documents can only be viewed / reviewed by your customers in your presence. They cannot keep or maintain a copy."

What you can provide them is a short and sweet summary of the top issues and what you are doing with them.

Thanks for that reply! I will give these suggestions to management!:)