"Post-Delivery" & "Warranty" - ISO 9001:2008 Clause 7.2.1 & 7.5.1

[leetimothyj]

After receiving my copy of ISO 9001:2008, I calmly read through the changes, which were primarily clarifications, until I hit the note that was added under 7.2.1, "NOTE Post-delivery activities include, for example, actions under warranty provisions, contractual obligations such as maintenance services, and supplementary services such as recycling or final disposal.". Our company had taken an exclusion to 7.5.1.f regarding "Post-Delivery Activities" in the past because we provided no contractual service agreements (for some reason the standard addresses Post-Delivery under 7.2.1.a and 7.5.1.f). However, we do offer a warranty for our product (as I would think most companies do, either formal or implied). I am interpreting this new note as including warranty agreements as a "Post-Delivery Activity" and that we will need to drop our exclusion. Has anyone else encountered this and, if so, what actions are you taking?
Thanks, Tim

[Viki N.]

Hi Tim,

You have a good question that will most likely enter many minds and not just on "post-delivery activities."

What you need to do is to determine if any of the "new clarifications" of ISO 9001:2008 impact your QMS based on your previous interpretation of the 2000 version.

Your interpretation:

I am interpreting this new note as including warranty agreements as a "Post-Delivery Activity" and that we will need to drop our exclusion.

I would say you are correct that the exclusion will need to be dropped since the new clarification of post-delivery activities specifically gives "actions under warranty provisions" as an example.

We previously interpreted post-delivery activities to also include customer returns, complaints, etc. and how we handle those as post-delivery activities. We will continue to interpret that way as part of our contractual agreements with customers.

Just a thought,
Viki

[JaneB]

In Reply to Parent Post by leetimothyj

Our company had taken an exclusion to 7.5.1.f regarding "Post-Delivery Activities" in the past because we provided no contractual service agreements (for some reason the standard addresses Post-Delivery under 7.2.1.a and 7.5.1.f). However, we do offer a warranty for our product (as I would think most companies do, either formal or implied). I am interpreting this new note as including warranty agreements as a "Post-Delivery Activity" and that we will need to drop our exclusion.

I'm curious how you could exclude this clause previously and still say that you offered a warranty? What does your 'warranty' actually consist of, then?

If you offer a warranty, I assume this might only be claimed on after you'd actually sold/delivered/installed/whatever your product. So any reasonable person would expect you to have some provisions in place to make good on your warranty. It can be as simple as just having a process to deal with any warranty claims/returns/whatevers if they come up.

I'm still curious as to why this would be considered as something new, if as a company, you are already offering a warranty...

[Sidney Vianna]

Why would anyone attempt to justify an exclusion of QMS-processes (warranty resolution) that are so closely connected with customer satisfaction? Everything revolving around warranty resolution is paramount if you have true customer focus. Not only you have a chance to potentially regain the customer's trust, but by analysing why products are failing, being returned, exchanged, etc., you have immensely valuable data on how to improve your product, your delivery, etc...

[qmsauditor-1]

In Reply to Parent Post by JaneB

I'm curious how you could exclude this clause previously and still say that you offered a warranty? What does your 'warranty' actually consist of, then?

If you offer a warranty, I assume this might only be claimed on after you'd actually sold/delivered/installed/whatever your product. So any reasonable person would expect you to have some provisions in place to make good on your warranty. It can be as simple as just having a process to deal with any warranty claims/returns/whatevers if they come up.

I'm still curious as to why this would be considered as something new, if as a company, you are already offering a warranty...

******
I think because the standard wasn’t clear in defining “Post-delivery activities”.

[Qwatcher2]

It is easy to not be clear on the requirements. If you provide a warranty you should already have an informal internal process you utilize for handling these even if you have previously not considered it in the system. It should be a simple matter to include it in the system.

Q