Hello,
I need some help, one of our customer is requiering us to identify in the control plan special characteristics given by them. By each special characteristic they have also an inspection level required . We don't want to use their symbols and I would like to create a procedure for our company.
I have decided to clasify special characteristics in 3categories: critical, significant, major and standard characteristics.
Standard characteristics should be the less important and no special control should be required.
But I don't know what kind of controls should I define for the other 2. Should I define something standard? Or for each characteristic we should define his own control?
Key, critical, significant, major, and standard (using some of your terms) are characteristic designators. You can control the identification of these designators any way you like. I suggest you define, as specifically as possible, the method of identifying how to use the characteristic designators. If you have design authority, define each type of characteristic designator in your engineering procedures. Otherwise define it in your production planning procedures and identify the inspection level required for each in your inspection procedures.
When referencing a critical characteristic on sketches and inspection paperwork you can use a different color, an asterisk (or 2 asterisks), a symbol, inspection level designation...whatever you want. If it is critical or key, it should stand out. Your company can decide how to ensure the users of your documents know the importance of what they are doing. Specify the nature of the characteristics described therein in the most clear and unmistakeable method you can.
Depending on your customer's requirements, you may need to use their method of identifying these characteristics to avoid confusion.