Are Customer Specific Requirements negotiable?

[chaosweary]

Is it a violation of the TS if a TS registered company refuses a customer specific requirement AFTER a contract has been signed?

Ex 1. Customer requests that you, the supplier hold their Manufacturing records for 10yrs, 5 yrs more than your record retention schedule.

Ex 2. Customer requests that you must use the WECO rules of AIAG blue book for your SPC trending.

Ex 3. Customer requests that you add in visual inspection for an appearance item on your product

[Sidney Vianna]

In Reply to Parent Post by chaosweary

Is it a violation of the TS if a TS registered company refuses a customer specific requirement AFTER a contract has been signed?

Ex 1. Customer requests that you, the supplier hold their Manufacturing records for 10yrs, 5 yrs more than your record retention schedule.

Ex 2. Customer requests that you must use the WECO rules of AIAG blue book for your SPC trending.

Ex 3. Customer requests that you add in visual inspection for an appearance item on your product

If a customer attempts to impose new requirements, after a contract has been signed, the supplier obviously can re-negotiate the contract. Until the new requirements have been agreed upon by both parties, no violation has happened.

[Helmut Jilling]

In Reply to Parent Post by Sidney Vianna

If a customer attempts to impose new requirements, after a contract has been signed, the supplier obviously can re-negotiate the contract. Until the new requirements have been agreed upon by both parties, no violation has happened.

Yes, but, in TS, the CSR documents are considered normative. If the requirements of a particular CSR are not being met, an auditor will expect to see waivers or evidence of customer agreement with not doing certain things. They become requirements when the new documents are issued, and those auto OE customers do not always take on renegotiating.

Anything can be attempted, however.

[Patricia Ravanello]

In Reply to Parent Post by Helmut Jilling

... an auditor will expect to see waivers or evidence of customer agreement with not doing certain things. They become requirements when the new documents are issued, and those auto OE customers do not always take on renegotiating.

Anything can be attempted, however.

...and good luck getting the customer to sign a waiver!!! (even if they agree with it in priniciple!!). You might have to write the terms of the waiver yourself and send it to the customer to obtain a record of their concurrence...making sure it is an "authorized" customer representative who agrees to it.

Patricia Ravanello

[Jim Wynne]

In Reply to Parent Post by Patricia Ravanello

...and good luck getting the customer to sign a waiver!!! (even if they agree with it in priniciple!!). You might have to write the terms of the waiver yourself and send it to the customer to obtain a record of their concurrence...making sure it is an "authorized" customer representative who agrees to it.

Patricia Ravanello

This isn't a question of waivers. The proposed requirements the OP is referring to apparently aren't part of the normative CSRs. The customer was apparently "piling on" after the initial contract was accepted. One caveat with respect to "waiver"--if the customer has a standard compilation of supplier requirements that has been changed, a waiver might be in order if the supplier negotiates its way out of new requirements.

[Kales Veggie]

I read in your original questions "requests", not "shall". Some analysis and questioning is necessary before saying "yes" or "no" to this "request".

Is it in writing from your customer and from someone with authority? Are these recommendations after an onsite audit by your customer? Do you already have a contract with this customer for this product?

Does your customer have a reason (e.g. quality spills, no reaction to out of control point on a SPC chart), to requests these 3 items? Is it something you should do anyway?

Visual inspection of an appearance item seems logical to me. What does the PFMEA say about failure mode for the appearance item? Is it an SC? What controls are in place.

If these are additional requirements, you can negotiate. Your original quote did not include the cost of the requested activities.

[AndyN]

I agree with Jim. The OP seems to describe a situation where the customer has added requirements after the supplier agreed the contract, so refusing them isn't a matter of a contract review non-conformity.

In my experience it's not unusual for a customer SQE (or whatever their designation) to have personal preferences for the way the supplier approaches SPC etc. If that's the case here and ther's no cost associated (is it really going to cost you more to keep records for 10 years? Did you really cost 5 years into the job?) then do it with a smile - the SQE won't be around then and you can pitch them after 5 years - remember it's not likely to be in the contract!

The other stuff I'd ask them for a formal contract amendment to 'protect you and them' from any misunderstanding. Often, these SQE requests are backed off when you offer to change the contract formally, even if the cost doesn't change.......

[world quality]

One thing to Remember is With the Big three if you were Tier One, all records were kept and put on CD for ten years, then Destoryed.

But remember to when you read there requirements, its states all they have to do is tell you and it is offical and has to be maintain. it does not have to be in writing.