7.4 Purchasing

The system requirement is suppliers should be selected and evaluated based on their ability to supply product.

My question is : do we need to evaluate even C class suppliers before giving them business. Is the evaluation mandatory for them.


Thanks for your views.

Raam

By classifying your supplier as C class havent you already done some form of evaluation ?

Can you expand on what C class means, and how you derive such a grading ?

Thanks for your response.

C Class here denotes the value of the purchases made with the particular supplier. No grading or evaluation done.

Hope this clarifies

7.4 Purchasing

7.4.1 Purchasing process
The organization shall ensure that purchased product conforms to specified purchase requirements. The type and extent of control applied to the supplier and the purchased product shall be dependent upon the effect of the purchased product on subsequent product realization or the final product.

The organization shall evaluate and select suppliers based on their ability to supply product in accordance with the organization's requirements. Criteria for selection, evaluation and re-evaluation shall be established. Records of the results of evaluations and any necessary actions arising from the evaluation shall be maintained (see 4.2.4).

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You establish the criteria, they can be different if you have different levels of suppliers as in your situation. I would surely have a different level if evaluation for a direct production material supplier than one that supplies off the shelf tooling items.

For our certification we had to do quite a bit of work on this area.

We compliled a list of all suppliers we have used in the last 6 months.

Then we ranked them on quality of service to include on-time delivery, accurate delivery, customer service (after sale), etc.

Review that list prior to every order to ensure they are an approved vendor.

Audit purchase documentation internally.

Check product on arrival to ensure it meets requirements.

Document all pertinent quality data to use in evaluating the next order.

So to answer your question we evaluate all vendors.

This was a good start for us at least. Hope it helps.

Clarification requested from Mr. Al Dyer


Thanks for your response. Can we waive off the supplier evaluation if suppliers supply proprietory items/ less critical items going into our product.

Thanks

Raam

Again you seem to have answered your own question in your post.

By saying a supplier supplies less critical items you have carried out some form of evaluation.

Supplier evaluation could mean anything from supplier audits to questionnaires, or a simple desk top review of the supply, its criticality to the end product, and the supplier. From your evaluation you then decide what controls you put on your supplier.

What I mean by less critical is, the component is functionally less critical to the product to which this goes in. My question is, shall we say supplier evaluation (in terms of his system and technical capabilities) is not required.


I think I am much more specific now.

Thanks

Yes Raam.

Sounds like a sensible and justifiable approach to me.

As ISO9001:1994 used to say in clause 4.6.2.b

The supplier shall define the type and extent of control exercised by the supplier over subcontractos. This shall be dependent upon the type of product, the impact of subcontracted product on the quality of final product and, where applicable, on the quality audit reports and/or quality records of the previously demonstrated capability and performance of subcontractors.

i.e. the controls you exercise are commensurate with the risk encountered.

We set up a progressive "tier level evaluation criteria"

Determined
Level 1 - Critical to end product suppliers - surveys - onsite visits - parterning activities document records upon delivery requirements.

Level 2 - Major suppliers > having input to end product > but able to control quality in-house after delivery >> peroidic survey peroidic onsite visits - recoeving inspection clearance only.

Level 3 Minor supliers > odds & ends suppiers established by price ciriteria only.

Keep one Master list - identifying which level catagory each identified supplier is in...

Any other views pl.

Jim gave a pretty good illustration of how to do this.

You simply divide your suppliers into groups (like your C class), and decide what kind of evaluation you think is appropriate to each group.

Then you write it down in your procedure, and you do it.

As long as you do this, you are following the rules.

As an example, in my company we have many items for which there is only one supplier we can use. What kind of criteria do we use for choosing to make a purchase from them? The fact that they are the only ones who can make it for us!!

What kind of evaluation do we submit them to? Not much. The only thing that needs tracking is their dependability so that we can lodge complaints with them if it gets bad. But there's no way we can pull the business from them.

Jim hit the nail on the head, you evaluate based on your criteria.

Dear Ram

The vendor rating is done based on the number of factors
- the quality of product
- the timeliness of supply
- quality of service
- less defects
- able to cater to the needs

based on this a rating is arrived and a cumulative rating is arrived
In the scale of 5 if a customer gets 2 -3 then it is a C class

You can always show it to the audior on the ratings

venkat