AS9003 Clause 4.20.2 - Customer-approved acceptance sampling plan

[RCW]

Okay, I need some help here.......

I'm trying to implement 4.20.2 of AS9003 which reads as follows:

"When required by contract, a supplier that performs acceptance sampling shall have a customer-approved acceptance sampling plan."

Now maybe I'm reading too much into this (or maybe I'm just reading this too much!) but I come away with 2 different meanings.

1) "When required by contract" means when an acceptance sampling plan is required by contract....

2) "When required by contract" means when required to have a customer approved sampling plan.... (although I don't think this was the intent).

I thought I had a third derivation but my mind is too twisted around right now to explain it.

I'm leaning towards explanation #1 but if anybody out there has any experience with setting up AS9003 systems please lend me some input.

THANKS!

[BadgerMan]

One of our major customers requires that any sampling plans we use during receiving, inprocess, or final inspection be approved by them (the customer) to ensure that the plans are statistically valid and do not allow for the inclusion of defectives in the lot (C=0). It is a contractual requirement that is flowed down via their quality system requirements as stated on the purchase order.

[RCW]

BadgerMan,

I guess what you said leads me to my third possible assumption.

3) If you are using a sampling plan and your customer (by contract) requires that they verify the plan with them, then the customer must verify the plan before use (under that contract).

(Sorry for the gooderest English).

What you said makes perfect sense, I'm just trying to understand the meaning of the spec and transpose it into a procedure requirement.