Looking for information on using a vendor audit as a record.

My questionaaire may change from vendor to vendor depending on the type of product/process they provide.

If I keep the vendor audit as a controlled form, I wil need to ECO each time I perform an audit or send the vendor a questionnaire.

So, does anyone else use a questionnaire as a record with no controlling ID ?

Thanks in advance

Looking for information on using a vendor audit as a record.

My questionaaire may change from vendor to vendor depending on the type of product/process they provide.

If I keep the vendor audit as a controlled form, I wil need to ECO each time I perform an audit or send the vendor a questionnaire.

So, does anyone else use a questionnaire as a record with no controlling ID ?

Thanks in advance

You're confusing records and forms. They're different animals. Filled-out forms often become records, but a blank form doesn't. You can still have one form and just incorporate all of the questions in it, whether or not they'll be used for each supplier.

OFF TOPIC<<< I'm wondering if you're the one selling this product Jim?


http://www.cafepress.com/niftywares.24262972

OFF TOPIC<<< I'm wondering if you're the one selling this product Jim?

Maybe Jim is a customer. :lol:

Maybe Jim is a customer. :lol:

Jim will have an appropriate response; trust me....;)

:lmao:

That is a thought that hadn't occurred to me.....I was happier that way.

Jim will have an appropriate response; trust me....;)

I can't wait. :topic: I had always visualized whirled peas as being mashed like potatos. :confused:

You're confusing records and forms. They're different animals. Filled-out forms often become records, but a blank form doesn't. You can still have one form and just incorporate all of the questions in it, whether or not they'll be used for each supplier.

Right, Jim. Too often these are confused. Plus, there is no requirement that you have a "form" for an audit checklist that has all the questions listed. Or, as Jim alludes to, you can have a "template" type form and pick and choose relevent questons.

Looking for information on using a vendor audit as a record.

My questionaaire may change from vendor to vendor depending on the type of product/process they provide.

If I keep the vendor audit as a controlled form, I wil need to ECO each time I perform an audit or send the vendor a questionnaire.

So, does anyone else use a questionnaire as a record with no controlling ID ?

Thanks in advance

Hi DuttonT,

Most audit forms I have or have used in the past contain all the potential questions that may need to be addressed, with an option to check "N/A" when that item was not applicable to that particular vendor. Is that an option that could work for you?

Thanks,

I had thought about using one for all, however I get a lot of "to many questions". So I will be using product or supplier specific questions and try to keep around 10 questions.

Dutton T-

At my previous employer, we first had 2 main catagories of suppliers: those who supplied material made to our drawings, and suppliers of 'stock' or 'off the shelf' items. We had two very different supplier evals for each catagory because we had different concerns: e.g., a supplier of stock items would be evaluated on, among other things, product literature, something that would not really apply to a supplier of parts made to our drawings. Conversely, a supplier of parts made to our drawings would be evaluated on, for example, their control of our engineering documents which of course would not apply to a stock item supplier. Therefore we had separate forms for each catagory.

Also, within the catagory of suppliers making parts to our drawings we had two distinct sub-catagories of parts: machined parts and fabricated parts. We had some concerns and expectations that differed to some extent between each sub-catagory so the form had two sections, each addressing each sub-catagory and the suppliers would fill out one or the other, or both as appropriate.

Each of these forms was a controlled form in our document control system.

That help at all?

Regards -John

Dutton T
We are using a basic questionaire for all our suppliers. Important of such a questionaire/evaluation/audit is to make sure that it is based on your individual needs as a cutomer. In our case we don't expect our suppliers to be ISO9001.2000 listed. We have critical and non critical suppliers. Critical is suppliers that supply products that is used in manufacturing parts that can affect the quality of our final product. Non-critical is suppliers that supply products that can't affect our quality. We will only use our questionaire on the critical suppliers. Non-critical suppliers will be evaluated based on performance.
The questionaire is a form that is controlled by means of a numer that is recorded in my manual. The questionaire become a record once it is completed by the supplier.
We have basic quesions like:
1) What is your lead time. (based on their lea time we will give them a point)
2) Are inspection activities done on all products that are supplied.
etc
All of the best:biglaugh:

Thanks,

I had thought about using one for all, however I get a lot of "to many questions". So I will be using product or supplier specific questions and try to keep around 10 questions.

Dutton,

I may be a little "different" in my approach, but I dislike the computer-generated lists of audit questions. They, in total, will cover all of the bases, but they can also turn the audit into an endless bunch of questions, the answers to which can be painfully obvious.

What I like to try to do is to use open-ended questions that should lead to the Operator (or insert another employee position here) eventually answering most of the questions without being asked. Of course this works for in-person audits only.

For written questionnaires (which I despise, BTW) many companies have a statement somewhere that allows the supplier to omit most of the questionnaire if they can attach a valid 9001 (QS, whatever) certificate. Still, I don't like them. When we used them years ago the highest score ever (98, if memory serves) came from our WORST supplier. Its like the first line of the cover letter says, "please lie to me, if you like".

John's comments about different supplier levels are also very important. Why expend the same effort on the supplier of a critical component as you expend on the supplier of disposable washroom products? You can have as many levels as you like. Just do what makes sense for you.

Oh, and try a serch on this site. We have had many conversations about this topic over the years.

:2cents:

Written questionaires are done to satisfy a requirement, I have yet to come across a quality professional who thinks supplier surveys are a valuable tool. They are a poor solution to the fact that it's not financially possible to audit all suppliers. I receive such surveys daily, and can say without a doubt that they are a waste of time and effort. For example, yesterday I recieved a survey which one question asked if I was planning on being Y2K compliant in regards to software upgrades....I checked the revision date of the document...2002??

Anyhow, the point being, if you are going to put out a generic, everything on one document, questionaire, try to glean whatever value you can out of it, keep it concise and up to date, otherwise it's just wasted time.

:2cents:
For example, yesterday I recieved a survey which one question asked if I was planning on being Y2K compliant in regards to software upgrades....I checked the revision date of the document...2002??


Obviously a typo--they meant Y3K. :tg:

I agree with Craig H. Normal audit questions can result in a lenghty questionaire. We've drawn up a quesionaire that we can use to evaluate the supplier and also be re-evaluated by ourselfs on a timeline scheduled by ourselfs.