This was sent to me in an e-mail so I'm reposting it here. Any takers?

------snippo-----

Good Morning!

Please help with an interpretation of the TE requirement under Supplier Delivery Performance Monitoring (4.15.6.1). The last sentence of the first paragraph states, "Critical path scheduling shall be required for timing control of complex manufacturing systems." What constitutes as a "complex manufacturing system?"

I work with 2 tooling and equipment suppliers, both pursuing certification to QS and fulfilling the TE requirements: one has approx. 30 employees and makes self-contained quill and tap units used for drilling and tapping, self-contained way type slide units and small single purpose machines, while the other company has about 95 employees in three plants and designs and builds standard and special self-equalizing piercing and forming units, valve packages and customer drilled manifolds of various sizes.

Would either one of these companies be considered as a complex manufacturing system?

Thanks very much for your help!

[This message has been edited by Marc Smith (edited 09-19-98).]

I have experienced a pre-assessment to T&E..and this question was raised by me to the auditors.....their response to me was that our product (returnable packaging systems) would NOT constitute a "complex manufacturing system" My take on it is this...if you manufacture products with numerous components...with complex manufacturing processes, such as electro-mechanical systems...robots, etc. than the CPM scheduling applies.....the auditors were kinda vague on this subject.....as with many others in the T&E supplement.,.. I think it is indicitave of the general MIS-understanding, and subjective interpretation we are growing accustomed to in regards to QS-9000. My gut tells me that the next 6 months are gonna be REAL interesting in the QS arena.

Thanks for your reply. I suspect this falls into the common sense category.