Also at a software company
meensy said:
I am writing a process for 'Control of non-conforming products' for software company. The company has products as well as projects.
I am unable to decide the meaning of the wording 'deal with nonconforming product by taking action to preclude its original intended use or application'
Can anyone explain this with example.
Regards,
Also with a software company. When Engineering produces a revision to a product, we take a series of steps to insure any customer does not get the previous version/now nonconforming product. These steps are outlined from a design review and documented on an engineering request that travels through the company. It requires an action and then approval from the various areas that have to make updates: engineering to master code files; sales to master revision files for firmware; marketing to update the website with the new software drivers, etc. We have one person whose job is to make certain all previous tasks have been done before the engineering request is closed.
During development work, if engineering produces code that is tested, but does not "work", the file is named to reflect the obsolete nature of the file and saved in a network directory that would never be accessible for a customer's part. The engineer also makes a paper record called an Engineering Work Record, and this explains the nature of the nonconforming product. This record gets filed with an engineering request after design verification is completed.
In our chip programming area, the programmer automatically kicks out nonconforming product. We mark the chip tubes with nonconforming tags, and have a regular material review board (MRB) meeting to disposition the chips.
These are a few examples of things we do to prevent software or firmware from getting out of the building. Our product complaints are very low, and customer satisfaction is high. We use a lot of checksheets in our work, to make certain nothing is missed. We also have a lot of double-checks by others to verified work has been done.
--QG