That is where I am getting confused. My understanding is that all external documents that affect the overall product quality should be controlled.
The production floor uses guides such as "Standard Steel Bolt Torque Specifications" and guides on how to cut hydraulic hoses.
Engineering may have general guides or specifications or books regarding valve sizes. Like which ones to use and so forth. I am just not sure where I should stop when it comes to controlling external documents.
Tanya
Actually, the external documents that you control are those determined by your organization to be "necessary for the planning and operation" of the QMS, not those that affect overall product quality.
The first set of documents is much smaller than the second.
In your engineering library you may have hundreds of references, any of which may inspire your engineers to come up with a better solution to your client's problem and thereby affect overall product quality. But most likely you are not promising contractually such inspiration. It is not necessary to control every external doc in your company's library.
What you are promising to your clients is that your product will meet certain specifications. These specs refer to external documents (standards, codes, regulations, etc.). You must make sure that you use those docs, in their required version, in designing and delivering your product.
We make custom structures. Each client's contract goes into great detail on what specs we must meet, and the external docs referred to by those specs vary. Thus, it makes sense for us to control docs by contract (project), and that is why we prepare a external doc list for each individual project. Conversely, in a company that makes standard products, you should look at your standard product specs and contract forms to determine external docs that need be controlled.
For example, if your product or contract spec calls (directly or indirectly) for all bolts to be torqued in accordance with the "Standard Steel Bolt Torque Specification, 2007 edition", then you'd better control that document. If it says "latest edition", then you'd better be continually monitoring for new issues of that doc. Conversely, if bolts in your product do not regularly need torque per your spec, but that doc sits in you ref library, it does not need control.
