Nonconforming Material Notifications to Customers

During our last ISO audit, the audit said we need a process for documenting notifications to customers of nonconforming material, both vendor supplied and customer supplied. Also need a file for easy access to the information. Any ideas?

[qualitytrec]

In Reply to Parent Post by MarilynJ6354

During our last ISO audit, the audit said we need a process for documenting notifications to customers of nonconforming material, both vendor supplied and customer supplied. Also need a file for easy access to the information. Any ideas?

If you are a small company I would suggest a log. try to keep it simple. Is that ambiguous enough?
Mark

I was considering just copying emails/faxes and filing them in one central location. I don't want to make this difficult. Do you see any problem with that? This is a draft of the change:
Notification of Nonconformity. Upon determination that material is nonconforming, the Inside Sales Rep shall be notified and use reasonable efforts to notify, either via email or fax, the customer(s) that may be affected by the nonconformity.
A central file shall be established and a copy of the email or fax to the customer, including date, name of customer representative notified, material description, lot number and any other relevant information or paperwork, shall be maintained for records.

[IMC]

First, you can add this process to your current nonconforming product procedure. By simply providing a copy of the NCMR (Nonconforming Material report to customers when applicable as per your procedure). The other area to explore is for those nonconforming materials for which you will seek approval to use, then you can also add to your nonconforming product procedure a reference to a work instruction for handling Deviation Requests. In both situations, you will need to have a log for internally recording and controlling this process. I understand that your question is more related to how to comunicate them (ncmr's) to customers when applicable. If you are intereted on a sample procedure and work instruction, I can e-mail you one. You may contact me at my e-mail: cargab@msn.com.

Good Luck!

[qualitytrec]

In Reply to Parent Post by MarilynJ6354

I was considering just copying emails/faxes and filing them in one central location. I don't want to make this difficult. Do you see any problem with that? This is a draft of the change:
Notification of Nonconformity. Upon determination that material is nonconforming, the Inside Sales Rep shall be notified and use reasonable efforts to notify, either via email or fax, the customer(s) that may be affected by the nonconformity.
A central file shall be established and a copy of the email or fax to the customer, including date, name of customer representative notified, material description, lot number and any other relevant information or paperwork, shall be maintained for records.

That would work for me. (though I prefer not to use shalls in my documentation, but that is up to you)
Mark

[fuzzy]

I know this is an old thread but...it struck me funny; where in ISO 9K 2K does it state that you shall have a record of contacting customers about vendor or customer-supplied non-conforming materials? I looked at 8.3 and I don't see those words. I see a requirement to "take action appropriate" if after delivery or start of usage NC product is discovered. So was that auditor comment an OFI? Our procedure states that customers may be contacted as a result of assessing the NC product. We have never been written up during an audit for a deficiency in that procedure. Anyone else see it this way?

[jmp4429]

In Reply to Parent Post by fuzzy

I know this is an old thread but...it struck me funny; where in ISO 9K 2K does it state that you shall have a record of contacting customers about vendor or customer-supplied non-conforming materials? I looked at 8.3 and I don't see those words. I see a requirement to "take action appropriate" if after delivery or start of usage NC product is discovered. So was that auditor comment an OFI? Our procedure states that customers may be contacted as a result of assessing the NC product. We have never been written up during an audit for a deficiency in that procedure. Anyone else see it this way?

Well, the way I see it (and you can disagree if you like) is that if you discover you've just shipped a bad batch of parts, "Appropriate Action" would include calling the customer to give them a heads up that they might not want to install the garbage you just shipped in their product.

And, to prove that you took that "Appropriate Action" you need to have a record of it, right?

Maybe definitions of "Appropriate Action" depend on your industry?

[Bev D]

in past companies I have placed notification under the 'control of nonconforming material' and documented the 'appropriate action' of whether to contact the customer or not - with supporting justification and data of course as part of the corrective action process and CAR form. If notification was made the form of notification was then documented on the CAR and in the CAR file...
worked for me. teh auditors never questioned any specific decision to not notify as long as we jsutified it - or in the case of AS9100 and Customer requirements - that we complied with the applicable requirements.