4.16 Quality Records - Retention - Customer Purchase Orders (POs)
In regards to record retention, we are expected to maintain customer PO's for the life of the product + 1 year, per the procedure. My question is two fold. First, why would an issued PO be more important to keep than quality records of a product that may be in use for several years? This does not make sense. Is a PO to be considered the job order as well as the customer order?
My next one is concerning a statement that "the requirement does not supersede any governmental or customer requirements. All specified retention periods shall be considered "minimums". Does this mean that a customer issued waiver stating that records shall be held for, let's say 5 years could take the place of keeping them for the life of the product run?
They want you to keep POs because they contain 'requirements'.
Not as I understand it. If the minimum is stated to be three years, and the customer asks for 10, the customer's is the requirement. If the customer says 1 year, your minimum still applies. I don't believe a customer 'waiver' would mean much in this sense.
It could be (NOTE the word *COULD*) interpreted that if a customer specifically *requires* a certain, specified record to be destroyed after 1 year, that would be the requirement to meet.
I agree with Marc. P.O.'s contain requirments, therefore, they need to be kept. And the standard talks to minimums, but if a customer asks you to keep a record longer, or the government has a requirement for that particular record, then that becomes the default time.
4.16 Quality Records - Retention - Customer Purchase Orders (POs)
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