How to deal with and track Customer Specific Requirements

Hello all,

I'm working at a automotive supplier (semiconductor) and i'm doing my Diploma Thesis. We want to introduce a system how to deal with incoming Customer Specific Requirements eg. Delphi, Bosch .... My Job is to build such a system and i am curious to know how you are dealing with the CSRs. Actually we have a large excel list where someone has to read the CSR and fill the form out by Hand. I'm open for suggestions and i'm looking forward to read your answers.

It sounds like you need a database of some kind that can hold the requirements, and then spit out an automatic listing of them for those that need access to them, without having to copy them by hand. We use an AS400 system to handle this, along with order entry. I don't know much about it, other than the small part I use of it every day.

The same thing could be set up in a relational database. You'd probably want something bigger than MS Access, though you could pony up a "front end" for users with it.

There will typically be differences in each contract - How do you deal with that aspect?

You should be able to readily find a "database designer" who will act as a consultant to design a relational database and the various queries and reports you will need to mine the database for information and turn out a usable document , even including differences in individual contracts.

The most difficult task for your database designer will be making it easy for you to populate and update your database as new information becomes available and some old information becomes obsolete. Certainly, it should be a named task for the designer to make provision for contract-specific requirements as well as generic customer-specific requirements - that's where the tough part of making it easy for you to populate the database comes in. (Good point to raise, Marc!)

Even an Access system will work faster than the Excel system and have more flexibility in making queries and generating reports to merge into documents like Bills of Material, Certificates of Conformance, Shipping documents, in-process travelers, and the like.

Much will depend on the sheer number of data points and the variety of queries and reports you will need in making the assessment whether to use Access, SQL, Oracle, etc. (That and company budget, of course.)

It should be noted that I normally advocate large companies deal with major software publishers versus "bargain basement" or open source database software, simply because of the wider variety of people familiar with the software to call on when there is a problem (almost invariably, there WILL be a problem.)

I would endorse Wes' comments about Access probably being adequate, unless (a) the organization is very large or (b) the computer network facility is very large, demanding something higher power than Access. I would be nervous
about using Excel - no audit controls; too easy to lose a row when edited, etc.

While on the topic, let me throw out a related question on a pet peeve. How do you interpret/audit the scope of "Customer Specific Requirements"?

When a customer (say, General Motors) publishes a list of C.S.R.... but they also have a plethora (or, maybe just a lot!) of methods and procedures that you as a supplier are expected to do. (Example: the "Quality System Basics" program they've rolled out over the past few years.)

My sense of the spirit of TS16949 is that all of these types of requirements should be identified and followed.... even if the customer didn't list them on their C.S.R. However, this does pose practical problems, such as, how do you audit such a requirement without a master list prepared by the customer?

I have handled this with my clients by identifying these as "additional" C.S.R.'s.

How do others handle this type of situation?


Best regards,
Brad

Hi all,

first of all thanks for the fast replies. I think the only appropriate solution of this problem would be a database. The major Problem iss how to identify the important things in CSRs or Contracts and make cross-references to other customers and of course the ISO 16949. Often there are CSR that have been copied by the customers from the ISO into their own documents, such things have to be filtered out. If its possible to do such cross-references you can easily detect Market-Trends (eg. 50% of all customers want the same --> identified Market-trend or possible future Standard). This is important for the company strategy in the future. Such a system can be much more than only a system for the 16949 certification. The next Problem is to define what a CSRs exactly is. I searched the Web but i didn't find an exact specification for CSR, because when all Customers or most of the customers want the same things there is no more a specific requirement.
Actually i have a bunch of problems and no clue how to solve them

So long,
Iceman414641

PS: Sorry for my bad english

I think you have some good thinking on the problem... and perhaps a good topic for your research. Keep us posted!

Best regards,

Brad