Warehousing: Is 7.3 applicable?

we have a client who is in warehousing industry. they are currently adopting iso9000:2000 on their qms. they are just receiving items from their customer for safekeeping. when these items are needed for their customer's use, they deliver them to the customer's premise. is 7.3 applicable to them?

[Marc]

Only in the widest sense of the phrase. Technically, you provide a service. And you do design that service (in a sense).

I think you would want to request an exclusion from 7.3, however that does not excuse you from being ready to explain how you came up with your systems.

If it was me personally, I would define my service (warehousing) essentially as a product and ensure a system exists which outlines how changes are made to that system. You'll essentially have a 'design' system.

The issue of whether design is really a part of a company which provides a service has long been debated. In part, this is why it was put where it is in the 2000 version.

I also suggest you take a read through http://Elsmar.com/ubb/Forum15/HTML/000202.html for starters. I also highly recommend that you take a read through http://Elsmar.com/ubb/Forum2/HTML/000180.html which is also a very good read with respect to design in service industries. Both of these threads are good.
http://Elsmar.com/ubb/Forum2/HTML/000031.html is from an 'earlier time' yet has some good insights.

I'm sure some of the other folks here will also have some ideas for you over the next few days.<hr>Edited 28 October 2001

I can't re-lookup and change every old link to posts in the old forums. Most of them *should* still be there. If you want to find the post in the New forums, if the link to the thread in the old forums works (most of them should...), look at the thread (topic) title and what forum it is in. Then back here in the New forums - go to that forum and look for the thread topic title - OR - do a Search for the key words from Title (Note - you can search entire threads or just the 'subject' or 'title' - if you look in the Forums search page you'll see the options.

Call me lazy...

If you want to find the post in the New forums, if the link to the thread in the old forums works (most of them should...), look at the thread (topic) title and what forum it is in. Then back here in the New forums - go to that forum and look for the thread topic title - OR - do a Search for the key words from Title (Note - you can search entire threads or just the 'subject' or 'title' - if you look in the Forums search page you'll see the options).

thanks a lot marc. that was a very useful info.

there probably are some folks out there who are in the warehousing industry. could you guys give me a more specific method in addressing design and development? or if you exclude it, how did you justify your exclusion? there are still some grey areas that i would like to clear-out.

[Fire Girl]

Caution!

I would be leary of excluding design from your system. If the registrar feels that you do carry out design activiites, you will have to exclude all projects that use the design process as it is not 'controlled'with ISO. It's sort of hard to explain- do you know what I mean?

My company provides warehousing services for our customers and we are excluding 7.3 from our quality system. We provide warehouse space and protection for our customers items and we transport their items for them as requested but we do not design anything for the customer. Warehousing is just one component of our service contract we have with the customer. Our registrar concurs with our exclusion of 7.3. Good luck!

but how did you state your justification? i just want some benchmark.

We "stated" our justification in the Quality Manual under the Permissable Exclusions section. We stated that "due to the nature of our services, our customer requirements and applicable regulatory requirements, we do not have a design process." Hope that answers your question.