O
ontheopenroad
I have an "opinion" question. I know what my opinion is, I just want to see what the consensus is.
My company is a contract manufacturer in the medical device industry. I started the QMS here 5 years ago, then I left for 2 1/2 years, and now I'm back. In the 2 1/2 years that I was gone, there were 8 QA managers monkeying around with my QMS, and now is has fallen to pieces. I have been back for 5 months now, and have gotten most of it reassembled. My last big hurdle is product identification and traceability (mostly identification).
Before I left, we had a "formula" for identifying raw material part numbers. All part numbers were in the same format, and you would look at either the raw material on the shelf or the part number in the inventory control system, and know exactly what the other was. However, after I left, a few things happened, such as:
First, when they went to the new computer system, they didn't keep the same raw material numbering system. They just started using the vendor part number and the roll width for rollstocks that we purchase. For instance, we buy 1525 material at 5" widths, the part number is 1525-5". OK, this is fine. However, for some materials, they don't use this approach. For example, we have part numbers in our system such as: Blue Foam, Shield Box, Yellow Vinyl, etc.
Secondly, with the two product lines that they purchased from other contract manufacturers, they adopted the existing part numbering structure from both of those companies, so I have part numbers that don't "mean" anything, and to us are just "random numbers".
Now, how in the am I supposed to write a product identification procedure that defines all of these methods of coming up with part numbers?
My company is a contract manufacturer in the medical device industry. I started the QMS here 5 years ago, then I left for 2 1/2 years, and now I'm back. In the 2 1/2 years that I was gone, there were 8 QA managers monkeying around with my QMS, and now is has fallen to pieces. I have been back for 5 months now, and have gotten most of it reassembled. My last big hurdle is product identification and traceability (mostly identification).
Before I left, we had a "formula" for identifying raw material part numbers. All part numbers were in the same format, and you would look at either the raw material on the shelf or the part number in the inventory control system, and know exactly what the other was. However, after I left, a few things happened, such as:
- New computer system. They didn't migrate old data from the old system. They did everything from scratch again.
- Purchased two different product lines from other contract manufacturers
- New Purchasing/Inventory Control Manager
First, when they went to the new computer system, they didn't keep the same raw material numbering system. They just started using the vendor part number and the roll width for rollstocks that we purchase. For instance, we buy 1525 material at 5" widths, the part number is 1525-5". OK, this is fine. However, for some materials, they don't use this approach. For example, we have part numbers in our system such as: Blue Foam, Shield Box, Yellow Vinyl, etc.
Secondly, with the two product lines that they purchased from other contract manufacturers, they adopted the existing part numbering structure from both of those companies, so I have part numbers that don't "mean" anything, and to us are just "random numbers".
Now, how in the am I supposed to write a product identification procedure that defines all of these methods of coming up with part numbers?