Specification Verification Responsibility

[sideoiler]

I have been having some recent issues with a certain customer who for the 3rd time now is rejecting parts based off of superseded specs. I am curious as to who's responsible for making sure the specs called out on Prints / Build Sheets are current and not superseded. Both the customer and the shop I rep are AS9100 certified, and the prints they are flowing down to us belong to an end user, not the customer we are dealing direct with.
Am I wrong in thinking that the customer who is contracting us needs to supply us with correct and current specs (as we have no way of knowing what fashion / industry these parts will be used).
Not sure if this changes anything, but we take exclusion on section 7.3, and we are strictly a job shop that has no involvement in design.

Regards,

Chris

 

[JaneB]

My view is drawn from 9001 (but I'm sure someone with 9100 will chime in) Whoever places the order with you should be making absolutely sure (and even more so given recent history!) that they supply you with the correct and current specs, drawings, etc.
That said, you have a responsibility to check back with them if you are in any doubt or there's any ambiguity.
As a matter of sheer practicality and common sense, I'd be double-checking all orders from that party (and getting a record of this!) to make sure the specs you're going to use are current and accurate.
I assume of course you have a reasonable process in place to manage capture of specs and (if you do repeat jobs) making sure any change in these/drawing revisions etc are managed properly at your end. Yes?

 

[sideoiler]

JaneB, thank you for your input, we do have the process in place to capture this, and have not had any issues other than this customer... As a matter of fact the latest order they are disputing is an order that was originally shipped to them back in 12-2011 and was accepted. They re-ordered under the same P# / Rev on 12-2013, we had parts left in stock and shipped those to them along with the Heat Treat cert they accepted once already in 2011.
I have since found out that they had a finding from their system auditor for not verifying specs are in current standings, so I get the feeling they are trying to point the finger at us so they don't incur anymore CA's on their end.
Which brings me to another question, what do you do when a customer requires the contracting organization to reference a superseded spec, and refuses to acknowledge the current rev / spec? This has happened to us in the past, and it cam from a large player in the aerospace industry.

 

[PaulJSmith]

A simple PO Review on your end should suffice to resolve this issue. Note to your customer that you shipped exactly what they ordered ... provided, of course, you find that is indeed what you did. And, if not already the case, you might ask your customer to be sure to be specific about revision numbers on their POs.

We have similar issues with one of our suppliers, and have found that direct communication is key to resolving most issues.