Where Does One Get Customer Specific Requirements?

[Elizabeth]

Hello,
The company that I work for is going for TS certification, and we are having trouble getting a hold of the Customer Specific Requirements. We are aware of the listing AIAG has published in their "Exploring ISO/TS 16949:2002" magazine, however, some of the sites which have the customer requirements on them are password protected. This has been the problem for Toyota, Honda and Nissan. Because we have contracts only with the accessory groups for each of these customers, we do not have access to these websites. Would it be safe to say that the customer requirements for us are only the ones found on RFQ’s, prints, specifications, Feasibility Plan, etc, rather than a specific document as would be found on the websites?

Thanks for your input!

[Wes Bucey]

Originally Posted by Elizabeth

Hello,
The company that I work for is going for TS certification, and we are having trouble getting a hold of the Customer Specific Requirements. We are aware of the listing AIAG has published in their "Exploring ISO/TS 16949:2002" magazine, however, some of the sites which have the customer requirements on them are password protected. This has been the problem for Toyota, Honda and Nissan. Because we have contracts only with the accessory groups for each of these customers, we do not have access to these websites. Would it be safe to say that the customer requirements for us are only the ones found on RFQ’s, prints, specifications, Feasibility Plan, etc, rather than a specific document as would be found on the websites?

Thanks for your input!

The simplest course of action is to request a response on this topic from the contact people your company has at each of the accessory groups. If they (your customers) expect you to comply with the customer-specific aspects of ANY Standard, they will give you access to those "password protected" sites.

Failing that, contact each of the "primes" directly and ask for access. They are usually open to exploring new suppliers, especially ones proactive enough to seek registration to a Standard.

[SilverHawk]

Obviously, if you are the 3rd.; 4th; or 5th. tier supplier, you may have to ask the customer specific requirements (CSR) from their customer. We are NOT a tier 1 or 2 suppliers but we are supply to one electronic-based organization. But this organization give us the GM CSR and requested us to meet the TS2 requirements.

However, we do not have to "fulfill" the other direct requirements such as spelled out in the other GM (GP) documents.

Perhaps, it would be a good idea is to send out letters to all your existing custoemrs and asked them if they have any CSR specifically your organization has to fulfill. If none, tell the CB auditors. You have to provide the list of CSRequirments to your CB auditor during the Document Review.

[D.Scott]

It seems like everybody these days wants to impose "special" customer specific requirements. We consider only those requirements agreed at the time of quote. If the customer refers to their supplier manual, they must provide it up front. If they refer you to a website, they have to provide access. If they refer to document "X" they have to provide that. To just make a statement that you should follow all their requirements without knowing exactly what they are is nonsense.

Lately we have noticed some customers are inventing new requirements just because it seems to be the fad these days. If a notice comes in from a customer with a new requirement, that requirement is now the subject of contract review. If we object to it, we will respond stating our objection. If we feel we can do it but need to increase the price, we tell them that. Regardless of what an SQE decides would be nice to impose on the supplier, it is subject to contract review.

My point is, if there is nothing about customer specific requirements at the time of quote, you are not required to run around asking if there are any. If you ask your customers after the fact, don't be surprised at some of the answers you get. If you think I'm wrong, try asking your customers if they require annual PPAPs (a brilliant idea that was mentioned quite a while back). See how many say "what's a PPAP?" and when you tell them they say "OH yeah, that would be good".

Speak of good timing - I just got a fax from a customer announcing a charge of $100 for every tub returned without the proper paperwork in each tub. This may appear reasonable to some but consider this - not all tubs arrive from the platers with paperwork - not all tubs have the same paperwork and there is nothing to say what is the proper paperwork - the fax goes on to say if there are several tubs in the order, we must make copies for each tub - our charge for each tub is generally less than $100. We have been doing business with this customer for years and now to solve a problem at their end they impose a CSR. Are we bound by it? I would argue no because it isn't part of the current contract but that approach won't get their parts shipped in here either.

Climbing down from the soapbox now. Sorry to carry on but you happened to hit one of my biggest pet peeves.

Dave

[Sam]

Originally Posted by Elizabeth

Hello,
The company that I work for is going for TS certification, and we are having trouble getting a hold of the Customer Specific Requirements. We are aware of the listing AIAG has published in their "Exploring ISO/TS 16949:2002" magazine, however, some of the sites which have the customer requirements on them are password protected. This has been the problem for Toyota, Honda and Nissan. Because we have contracts only with the accessory groups for each of these customers, we do not have access to these websites. Would it be safe to say that the customer requirements for us are only the ones found on RFQ’s, prints, specifications, Feasibility Plan, etc, rather than a specific document as would be found on the websites?

Thanks for your input!

We are a supplier to the Toyota, Honda and Nisson accessory groups, but I'm not aware that they are imposing TS2.

To become certified to TS2 you first must have a customer that has imposed the specification; then must be able to present a list of your customer specific requirements to your CB prior to the certification audit. The auditor will use this list during the certification and follow-on surveillance audits.
If you are a tier I to Chrysler,Ford or GM, Their CSR's are found on the IAOB web site. For other OEM's you must contact the SQA directly to determine thw CSR's, unless they are noted in your RFQ. If you are not tier I then you will have to contact each customer directly for their requirements.

[Elizabeth]

Thanks for all of your opinions!
The main thing that we are struggling with is that, as far as I understand it, TS requires us to meet ALL customer requirements - not just the requirements of the customers who are imposing TS. So, even though Toyota, etc, is not requiring we have TS, the Big 3 is requiring it, and so to comply with ts, we still have to focus on Toyota, Honda and Nissan's requirements (we are tier 1 & 2).
Obviously, we are looking at the requirements from our customers which are made in the quote, but the 'other' CSRs for the Big 3 were easily found @ iaob - unfortunately this isn't the case with Toyota, etc. We just want to be sure we aren't missing anything.
Seems like the best plan is we'll just have to contact them and see whether there are any 'special' requirements they expect from us!

[SilverHawk]

Elizabeth, since your organization is supplying to Nissan, may I ask if you know soemthing about "Nissan" ramp-up activities.

The Nissan guys are coming to visit us and provided us some documents and mentioning about ramp-up activities.

Cn you help me out?

[soulmas]

Hi! Elizabeth: I'm responsible for TS in my company and we are already certified. The TS customer specific requirements for TS are for DCX, Ford, Visteon and GM only... other customers use the quality supplier manual. For instance if the auditor request for a customer requirement for VW you have to show the formel Q.