Re: Missing Contract Review Records on big contracts
I audited a company's contract review (CR) function to ISO9001 and AS. I could not find records of CR on big contracts with Boeing or USAir. I expected to find a one-page Contract Review form signed by affected Departments Managers.
I was told that they received the bid request and they send the proposal back. If Boeing sends a contract back to the company with no changes and if the president of this company signs the contract, it is evidence of records of contract review. It is because the company President would not sign anything without having his staff check it out.
I asked if there were evidence that the affect departments reviewed the contract. The answer was- there is no requirement in the std to show that.
I asked if this method of satisfying the CR record requirement is documented? The answer was- There is no requirement to document it. They are showing evidence of CR by the signature of the President.
This is how I look at it. 7.2.2 requires records of contract review. If the company decides to use the signature of the President on the final contract as the record, it needs to be documented somewhere. Otherwise, using the signature alone as record of CR does not meet the intent of the standard.
What do you think?
Wes, as always, you speak wisdom. I do have a question, though.
I have never espouse to a "check the box" approach to quality systems. However, a standard is a standard.
Shouldn't the customer at least provide some methodology to assure a contract has been reviewed. I mean, a spreadsheet or something saying, "yep", on this date, I looked at WVT contract, and signed it.
Too, contracts should be reviewed on the front-end, and back-end to assure the contract was completed, etc.
So this small company doesn't keep any copies of contracts? They just willy-nilly sign/ approve them, without keeping something for their records? I was a one-man shop, but you can bet the bank I reviewed contracts forwards and backwards, and always demonstrated review by me and my customer on it.
So did I miss something in your explanation? Because I do believe this shop, however big or small, should be able to demonstrate that contracts are reviewed.
When you ask about keeping contracts (
doesn't keep any copies of contracts?) do you suppose they throw them away? The company probably keeps the contract/purchase order for billing purposes as well as for keeping track of production. In any regard, the specifics of Contract Review are different under different circumstances. If I make off-the-shelf goods and I get an order for 10,000 pieces, what more contract review do I need than to see if I have it on the shelf or have to produce more?
The company's reply is:
1) The president won't make the proposal until he has assured himself of the company's capability and capacity to fulfill a contract if Boeing agrees to the proposal. He is content with Boeing's ability to pay if they order.
2) Purchase order or proposal comes back with no changes - no more review is necessary.
3) Our record is the signed and countersigned (by the customer) proposal, evidenced by the purchase order (we are allowed to infer countersignature of the proposal if we get a purchase order exactly according to the terms of our proposal.)
On a personal note: I'm as obsessive as anyone when it comes to dotting i's and crossing t's. Yet, I had some customers who would call up and say, "Make me ten thousand pieces just like part number xyz, except make the length 2.500 inches instead of 2.250 inches. Redline a drawing of xyz with what you need, call it "xyz alternate 2.5" and I'll sign off on it."
Both customer and I had enough history that we could trust each other to perform according to this verbal contract. Note, especially, there was no query of cost - customer expected I would charge the same rate as xyz plus my actual costs and markup for making the change.
Ultimately, we both reduced the contract to paper - redline, inspection criteria, etc., including a projected delivery date once I knew our machine availability (could we suspend a running project long enough to make this short run or would we be delayed a week or so in starting until we had sufficiently surplus built up on another order to squeeze in a short run order?)
In our mind, contract review of an order like this did NOT require a formal meeting and capacity could be resolved by one person looking at the software which showed status of all running projects plus a quick verbal check with an operator to assure the machine was running smoothly and did not need unscheduled maintenance (the glorious value of regular preventive maintenance!) We already knew we were capable of making a nearly identical part. The documentation of review (by one person - equivalent to the President of the subject) and acceptance would be the issuance and countersign of the redline version of the part. I recall one instance where we manufactured 50,000 parts over 2 years based on a redline and never did receive an official release of the revision.
(In fairness, I did ALWAYS include a copy of the redline with every shipment to forestall any incoming inspection drone who pulled the previous version for inspection purposes.)
I guess the only real "final review" is when the customer accepts and pays for the goods and there is no "do over" requested.