First of all, Hello. I've been a long time lurker/voyeur of the forum and have gleaned a ton of great information on all aspects of our quality system and thank all that I have "stolen" information from.

I haven't been able to get a good enough answer here in reading through several posts on Part ID and traceability, though and hope my question fills in a blank I have along with someone else.

The 9001:2000 standard states in section 7.5.3:
"...the organization shall identify the product by suitable means throughout product realization."
My question is this:
Would you consider it a suitable means to use the supplier's identification on the box as a sufficient method of ID? I can trace the supplier part number to our part number we use for the subassembly in our system, btw.

Thanks,
Patrick

First of all, Hello. I've been a long time lurker/voyeur of the forum and have gleaned a ton of great information on all aspects of our quality system and thank all that I have "stolen" information from.

I haven't been able to get a good enough answer here in reading through several posts on Part ID and traceability, though and hope my question fills in a blank I have along with someone else.

The 9001:2000 standard states in section 7.5.3:
"...the organization shall identify the product by suitable means throughout product realization."
My question is this:
Would you consider it a suitable means to use the supplier's identification on the box as a sufficient method of ID? I can trace the supplier part number to our part number we use for the subassembly in our system, btw.

Thanks,
Patrick

Hi Patick. Welcome!

can you use the supplier's identification on the box to trace back to their traceability system?

First of all, Hello. I've been a long time lurker/voyeur of the forum and have gleaned a ton of great information on all aspects of our quality system and thank all that I have "stolen" information from.

I haven't been able to get a good enough answer here in reading through several posts on Part ID and traceability, though and hope my question fills in a blank I have along with someone else.

The 9001:2000 standard states in section 7.5.3:
"...the organization shall identify the product by suitable means throughout product realization."
My question is this:
Would you consider it a suitable means to use the supplier's identification on the box as a sufficient method of ID? I can trace the supplier part number to our part number we use for the subassembly in our system, btw.

Thanks,
Patrick

There shouldn't be any problem with that method, although you might want to document the path from the supplier's part number to yours.

Welcome to the Cove Patrick !

What about when you take the part out of the box? Does it ever linger about until it gets assembled? How do you plan to identify the "finished" product until it leaves your organization ?

My question is this:
Would you consider it a suitable means to use the supplier's identification on the box as a sufficient method of ID? I can trace the supplier part number to our part number we use for the subassembly in our system, btw.In principle, I don't see a problem, but do you use bill of materials or travelers in your assembly process that calls for your P/N, rather than the one your suppliers use? You can easily ask your supplier to apply a label to the box that also identifies your P/N, in addition to theirs.

In principle, I don't see a problem, but do you use bill of materials or travelers in your assembly process that calls for your P/N, rather than the one your suppliers use? You can easily ask your supplier to apply a label to the box that also identifies your P/N, in addition to theirs.

Agree with Sidney. If you have a cross reference between your part number and theirs that is sufficient identification.

Ideally you will have a copy of the cross reference on the shop floor! :D

Welcome to the Cove Patrick !

What about when you take the part out of the box? Does it ever linger about until it gets assembled? How do you plan to identify the "finished" product until it leaves your organization ?

Let's take a real life example:
We place velcro on a molded foam part when we take a roll of velcro from the box, it also has the customer's part number on the roll, so I'm not too concerned about the lingering issue. As for how we identify the "finished" product, it is always id'd either with a Product ID tag or is in a finished box with our part number.
Sidney has a good idea of asking our suppliers to place our part number on the box (as we do for our customers). I hadn't thought of that. Too simple, I suppose :)

Let's take a real life example:
We place velcro on a molded foam part when we take a roll of velcro from the box, it also has the customer's part number on the roll, so I'm not too concerned about the lingering issue. As for how we identify the "finished" product, it is always id'd either with a Product ID tag or is in a finished box with our part number.
Sidney has a good idea of asking our suppliers to place our part number on the box (as we do for our customers). I hadn't thought of that. Too simple, I suppose :)

There you go... sometimes the best ideas are the simplest ones ! :bonk: Once the simple (but good) idea is out we think to ourselves, Why didn´t I think about that ?!

living and learning...