This is a condition that is probably fairly common, so I hope I can get some ideas from you all.
We are in the process of acquiring and moving into a much larger building. There are two tenants in the building now, both of whom will be staying.
One of the tenants will become one of our suppliers on about a 30-40% basis. We will be integrating his machines with ours in a large open floor area, and his staff as well. We are also sharing all Shipping and receiving areas, and probably much of our material handling equipment.
We are seeking ISO 9001 certification. Can we divorce his business from ours, even though the entire floor is mixed? I understand we will need to control some aspects of the supply chain, as if he was a distance supplier, but do we need to become more involved?
How is this arrangement likely to impact our certification?:confused:

For the most part, yes you can exclude them if they are in fact a totally seperate business entity from you....make sure you work this out with your registrar.

How will it impact your certification? Other than $ it shouldn't if you can show adequate control over "your" areas.

I see this quite often in GOCO operations (Government Owned-Contractor Operated) where areas and even equipment are shared

Recently we went through this ourselves with another division under a separate certification sharing production space.
Our registrar in fact said there must be a separate certification if they are different legal entities, (and even if one wholly owns the other). Also, the fact that you are sharing production or warehouse space (even if you are different companies) makes it fair game for an auditor to write up a situation for housekeeping, segregation of material and safety etc, regardless if it is your fault or not.

Yes, I am concerned about potential write-ups that are occasioned by the other entity. It seems like I would be saying to an NC, "well, that area isn't part of our operations". We already anticipate these problems with our customer audits, because the line between the areas will be very blurred. On a certification level, I understand what Randy is saying, clearing it all ahead of time with the registrar would not be a big problem. Audits, however, especially customer audits will be more of a problem, especially since the vendor would be one of our suppliers.

....especially since the vendor would be one of our suppliers.

So if you have any problems with their housekeeping, just do a supplier audit on them and issue them an NC or two. :rolleyes:

To add slightly to Randy's comments, this is handled in the scope statement.

I see this sort of thing fairly often.