Quality Records - PO's (Purchase Orders) - Life of part + 1 Year

We are a supplier of paints and coatings which makes us a batch process industry related supplier.

We are QS9000 registered, but we are trying to make efficient sense of the requirement to store PO's for the life of the active part plus one calender year.

Our registrar interprets the requirement to mean as long as orders come in , it is active. When orders cease, one year later you purge your PO files.

Our question is basic - how do you store and archive the PO's for a variety of raw materials, which are then used in a variety of formulations for a number of different customers, and have individual records that are unique and easily disposable when the formualation is no longer active?

Any and all opinions and ideas are welcomed.

I am not familar with your processes but I think traceability can be maintained if you record the batch/lot number of the raw materials used for each formulation. The P.O. should also contain the batch no..

[Marc]

Clark:

No chance of a software solution?

Software was one approach we have taken with system backups, but not all of the documents are on the system IE Customer PO's etc.

A.) The larger issue still is unanswered - when a customer says a part is no longer active, how are we supposed to destroy the records when the raw materials for the deactivated part are still active for other parts.

B.) The blanket PO often contains 5 - 15 different part numbers per PO. How are we to retain records for each part active or de-active?

QS9000 says" ...maintained for the length of time that the part is active for production and service requirements...". My interpretation of active for production is with respect to the PO. Let's say the PO requires 200 gallons of black paint. Once the 200 gallons is shipped out to your customer, the part is no longer in active production. I do not think paint needs servicing. Hence the records should be kept for one year after the product is out from your company. I treat each PO independently.

I agree there is traceability, but my greatest concern is the amount of paperwork that will be required to maintain that traceability to the hard copy PO , and for the life of the part - no less.

I can envision boxes and boxes of records that may never become deactivated by my customer.

In addition to PPAP records both Raw Materials and Customer Purchase orders are to be maintained for the life of the active part plus one calender year.

Thanks Chuck

The interpretation of QS9000 is found in the glossary, and has a customer focus: see page 123 of QS9000 version 3.

Let's say a company is producing bolts and nuts. Some of those products were produced since 30 years ago. The company will have to keep POs for a long, long time. Anyway some customers will not know when they will order the same parts again or if they ever will. I am not sure what information in the PO is so useful that it had to be kept for more than a couple of years. Just curious; is there a statue-barred period for PO?