Contacting a "Must Use" (aka Sole Source) Supplier's Registrar

Mike S.

Happy to be Alive
Trusted Information Resource
Let’s say you have a supplier that you must use (sole-source) and they sent you nonconforming material and they either (A) refuse to acknowledge that the material is nonconforming, although you are 100% sure it is, or they (B) acknowledge that the material is nonconforming but refuse to provide you with an acceptable (or any) corrective action response. IMO this is more likely to happen if the customer is a relatively small entity as compared to the supplier.

How do you feel about threatening to contact, or actually contacting, a supplier’s ISO9001 or AS9100 registrar and reporting the facts of the matter to the registrar as a means of leverage to get the supplier to make things right?

Have you ever done this?

I would appreciate any thoughts, experiences, etc.
 

howste

Thaumaturge
Trusted Information Resource
Re: Contacting a Supplier's Registrar

I have personally never done this, but the OASIS database has the capability to enter complaints against an AS9100 certified organization. This can be done by any registered OASIS user. Doing this would notify the CB and the supplier and require follow up on the issue. Here's a link to an IAQG presentation on the OASIS feedback process showing the methods and required activities:

https://www.sae.org/iaqgdb/oasishelp/feedbackprocess.pdf?
 

Emmyd

Involved In Discussions
I have had to threaten this before. They are not the sole source of material, but they didn't want to take any of the complaints seriously. So, in addition to bull-dogging them for a response, I did some research on their registrar. I then sent my contacts (I also looked up the highest up personnel that I could find) an email reminding them of their responsibilities under their certification and to please confirm back that "XYZ" was their current registrar. This seemed to get the attention of a number of people, and I finally got a decent response to the complaint.
Good luck!
 
B

BoardGuy

[FONT=&quot]Another avenue afforded the organization is associated with the contract used to procure the product and legal recourse. If the product is not usable or you must perform rework to bring it into compliance you can and should inform the supplier that you have suffered damages under the terms of the contract and will seeking compensation afforded by your states civil codes.[/FONT]
 

Mike S.

Happy to be Alive
Trusted Information Resource
Anecdotally, it seems to me with more and more consolidation in the aerospace world, the smaller-dogs are being absorbed by the big dogs on the block. The big dogs many times seemed to be dismissive to the smaller guys when legitimate quality problems arose.

Now those former small guys who have been acquired by the big boys often seem to forget where they came from, or their new masters force them to conform, so they too become dismissive.

Seems to me, using the registrar reporting tool as a last resort (short of a lawsuit) could be yet another tool in the toolbox. Sort of like a breaker bar – you don’t always wanna use it, and sometimes you can’t use it, but sometimes it will work when nothing else does.
 

howste

Thaumaturge
Trusted Information Resource
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