Hi
Wondering if anyone could tell me the answer

I am in a recruitment agency supplying temporary workers to customers

I cannot think of any example where 7.5.4 Customer property would apply.

How can i record this in the quality manual - obviously cannot just leave it blank !

Hi
Wondering if anyone could tell me the answer

I am in a recruitment agency supplying temporary workers to customers

I cannot think of any example where 7.5.4 Customer property would apply.

How can i record this in the quality manual - obviously cannot just leave it blank !

Debbie,

How do these temporary workers "get" to you? Do you charge them some sort of fee for sending them to other organizations? Does this organization pay you a fee for sending them workers? If you answered Yes to both, as I see it, you have two customers / clients... the candidate for the temporary work and the person/organization for which this temp is going to work for... if this is the case, do either of them submit any sort of documents (ID cards, birth certificates, drivers licenses, any other sort of documentation required by the British government for employment)? IMO, these documents can be considered as Customer Property and should be treated as 7.5.4

If not, then you need to justify in your Quality Manual that this requirement is not applicable to your organization and a brief explanation of why not...

Hi
Wondering if anyone could tell me the answer

I am in a recruitment agency supplying temporary workers to customers

I cannot think of any example where 7.5.4 Customer property would apply.

How can i record this in the quality manual - obviously cannot just leave it blank !

In general the clause applies to manufacturing situations where things like tooling and gages that are customer property might be affected. This is not to say that it can't apply in a service setting, though. If it's conceivable that at some point in the future your company could be responsible for customer property, the best approach would be to describe what you would do in that situation. On the other hand, if you're confident that the requirements will never be applicable in your situation, you may exclude them in your quality manual by describing the exclusion and the rationale behind it.

Hi
Wondering if anyone could tell me the answer

I am in a recruitment agency supplying temporary workers to customers

I cannot think of any example where 7.5.4 Customer property would apply.

How can i record this in the quality manual - obviously cannot just leave it blank !

If you have no customer owned property, simply state that fact. Look at 1.2 "Application" of the Standard. You can exclude parts of clause 7 under certain situations. You could, if it doesn't apply, just exclude it.

When you consider customer owned property, don't forget to consider things like software, technical and/or proprietary data/information, catalogs/brochures, customer provided skill tests, etc.

Dave

Debbie,

How do these temporary workers "get" to you? Do you charge them some sort of fee for sending them to other organizations? Does this organization pay you a fee for sending them workers? If you answered Yes to both, as I see it, you have two customers / clients... the candidate for the temporary work and the person/organization for which this temp is going to work for... if this is the case, do either of them submit any sort of documents (ID cards, birth certificates, drivers licenses, any other sort of documentation required by the British government for employment)? IMO, these documents can be considered as Customer Property and should be treated as 7.5.4

I don't think that there will be instances where documents of that type will be left in the custody of the service provider, but it's helpful to point out that before an exclusion is made, you have to consider different types of property. Basically, if it belongs to a customer (or a customer's agent) and you have custody of it, the clause is applicable.

Hi
Wondering if anyone could tell me the answer

I am in a recruitment agency supplying temporary workers to customers

I cannot think of any example where 7.5.4 Customer property would apply.

How can i record this in the quality manual - obviously cannot just leave it blank !

Hi,
I think in your case the customer property would be the customers resume and privacy of information. In my opinion that would be required under that clause. I understand that you might wan to cover that off in the document control section, however it is still control of your customers property.


Tim

Hi,
I think in your case the customer property would be the customers resume and privacy of information. In my opinion that would be required under that clause. I understand that you might wan to cover that off in the document control section, however it is still control of your customers property.


TimBingo! I was just about to add the same thing. I think privacy ought to be mentioned in ISO 9001 somewhere as every business has this responsibility. In this case it's even more relevant and something that would fit well into your Quality Manual.

Bingo! I was just about to add the same thing. I think privacy ought to be mentioned in ISO 9001 somewhere as every business has this responsibility. In this case it's even more relevant and something that would fit well into your Quality Manual.

I believe that ISO 9001 has indirectly taken care of the privacy issue under the "control of documents".

4.2.3 f) "to ensure that the documents of external origin are identified and their distribution controlled, and"

The most important part of privacy laws (at least in Canada) is to minimize the release of unapproved personal information. Which I believe this covers.

Tim

Another scenario concerning intellectual property: You should also consider information your staff are able to figure out by themselves even though it has not really been forwarded to them.

Example: Customer X suddenly starts hiring large numbers of temps from you, thereby making it obvious that they have landed a big order. Their competitor Y may be very interested in that information...

/Claes

Hi
Wondering if anyone could tell me the answer

I am in a recruitment agency supplying temporary workers to customers

I cannot think of any example where 7.5.4 Customer property would apply.

How can i record this in the quality manual - obviously cannot just leave it blank !

Debbie,
Don't overcomplicate it.

You can exclude anything in section 7 that doesn't apply, provided you can justify that (check section 1.2 carefully). Recall that 7.5.4 refers to customer property provided for use or incorporation into (your service). It very often doesn't apply in a service environment. In a property letting firm, for example, it applies because the firm gets keys to premises to be let, and must take care of them.

You probably receive CVs or the like? You probably remove any identifying address from them, say, and send on to your customer. So you need to make sure you have the right CV, and attach it to the right person. It's probably very little more than that.

Sometimes you can just treat that as information supplied to you for you to do your work (as an IT firm does info supplied to it by the customer for their system), or as 'customer supplied property'. Because all you're really getting is a copy of a document, and other than the obvious identify & keep confidential & secure, they're not handing over their only passport, for example. (If they were, you'd certainly need to look after them).
And if you're in the business, say, of repairing or re-boring widgets, then your customers certainly want to know you're going to look after their precious widgets and give them back!

Another scenario concerning intellectual property: You should also consider information your staff are able to figure out by themselves even though it has not really been forwarded to them.

Example: Customer X suddenly starts hiring large numbers of temps from you, thereby making it obvious that they have landed a big order. Their competitor Y may be very interested in that information...

/Claes

Debbie:

Claes has hit it on the head. I was thinking the same thing, intellectual property (if that's part of your organization's inteactions with clients).

I am wondering if this statement is true: "In some cases, the customer provides you with their own product which you then work on and sell back to them. This includes products installed, commissioned or repaired at the customer's site."

If we sell and service equipment, that means once we install the equipment, if we go back it is considered customer property and our entire service dept. is 7.5.4?

I am wondering if this statement is true: "In some cases, the customer provides you with their own product which you then work on and sell back to them. This includes products installed, commissioned or repaired at the customer's site."

If we sell and service equipment, that means once we install the equipment, if we go back it is considered customer property and our entire service dept. is 7.5.4?

Yes, got it!
:applause: