Should the facility landlord be an approved supplier?

[Jane's]

This feels like such an obvious 'yes', but neither did my previous employer nor does the current one have the landlord listed on the ASL. What are you thoughts - should the landlord be an approved supplier? TIA.

 

[locutus]

I have included the landlord/leasing company on the ASL before. The reason being that this can be considered an external interested party with some risk. The landlord could not comply with regulations, pay taxes, etc. that could put a tenancy at risk.

 

[Golfman25]

I wouldn't include as an approved supplier. What's the point? There is risk, but more so at a high level -- lessor/lessee issues. Maybe they are an interested party, but supplier, I wouldn't expand to that level.

 

[Jane's]

Thank you both. I guess the issue is not as black and white as I thought.

 

[Eredhel]

It's one of those things we wouldn't do even if we didn't own the buildings. You could go as far as putting the convenience stores where your shippers get their gas on your AVL. There is risk yes, but holy cow I'd never go that far. So really you decide as an organization where you want to draw the line.

Just curious, which QMS standard are you aiming for?

 

[Jane's]

ISO 13485. On steroids, clearly

I would say that there is risk but it would be accounted for and mitigated well before you've even started your operations.

 

[dsanabria]

This feels like such an obvious 'yes', but neither did my previous employer nor does the current one have the landlord listed on the ASL. What are you thoughts - should the landlord be an approved supplier? TIA.

Quote from ISO 9001:2015

A.3 Understanding the needs and expectations of interested parties

Subclause 4.2 specifies requirements for the organization to determine the interested parties that are relevant to the quality management system and the requirements of those interested parties. However, 4.2 does not imply extension of quality management system requirements beyond the scope of this International Standard. As stated in the scope, this International Standard is applicable where an organization needs to demonstrate its ability to consistently provide products and services that meet customer and applicable statutory and regulatory requirements, and aims to enhance customer satisfaction.

There is no requirement in this International Standard for the organization to consider interested parties where it has decided that those parties are not relevant to its quality management system. It is for the organization to decide if a particular requirement of a relevant interested party is relevant to its quality management system.

In addition... furthermore, if you can not flow the requirements of Clause 8.4.3 - The organization shall communicate to external providers its requirements for:

a) the processes, products and services to be provided;


Then it does not belong on the AVL - nor any other entity that does not fit into those criteria.


Simple rule - if you do not power to dismiss, change or write an NCR - it does not belong in the AVL

 

[Jane's]

Simple rule - if you do not power to dismiss, change or write an NCR - it does not belong in the AVL

I think this settles it. Thank you.

While we are here though, would you agree that website designer/ webhost does belong on the ASL, for the same reason the landlord doesn't, i.e. they would qualify for a corrective action assuming something goes wrong with your web labeling.

 

[dsanabria]

I think this settles it. Thank you.

While we are here though, would you agree that website designer/ webhost does belong on the ASL, for the same reason the landlord doesn't, i.e. they would qualify for a corrective action assuming something goes wrong with your web labeling.

If the webdesign is the product or service that you provide - yes, but if it is not then - think of it this way. Are you going to review and approve them every year and more important - is the Purchasing department going to issues purchase order to them? if the answer is no then they do not belong.

Use this time effectively and work with suppliers that do provide product or services to meet your customers requirements.

 

[Eredhel]

We use our web site to communicate some of our Terms and Conditions, so for us it's an approved vendor. Some of our contracts have customer required T&C that can be 20 or 30 pages long. So on our outside process POs we reference the web site.