C
C2018
Can anyone offer insight into how other companies are handling Employee Owned Measuring Tools?
It seems like our auditors are favoring that all measuring tools (The Company’s tools as well as the Employee’s) be controlled and calibrated – No Reference Tools allowed. Is this really a requirement of AS9100D?
[[Some Background:
My company has always allowed Employees to bring and use their own measurement tools. These tools are not tracked by the company and these tools are not calibrated.
Per our manual, the only allowable method for Product Acceptance requires a qualified inspector using calibrated tools.
The employee could measure his part with calibrated or un-calibrated tools, but procedurally could not make an acceptance decision; any conclusions just would not count as far as product acceptance is concerned. An Employee’s measurements are never used on an inspection report or considered for inspection data.
There is value to us in allowing the employees to make their own unofficial measurements – mostly, it allows production to flow without overloading inspection and allows inspection to concentrate on a single part for a longer term. It also allows the employee to identify potential problems sooner and correct faster (no waiting for an available inspector). ]]
Control is not a problem, but calibration is expensive and the assignment of calibrated tools to personnel who cannot even use them for inspection seems like a poor use of company resources.
Is there any hope to keep our Employee-Owned Reference tools?
It seems like our auditors are favoring that all measuring tools (The Company’s tools as well as the Employee’s) be controlled and calibrated – No Reference Tools allowed. Is this really a requirement of AS9100D?
[[Some Background:
My company has always allowed Employees to bring and use their own measurement tools. These tools are not tracked by the company and these tools are not calibrated.
Per our manual, the only allowable method for Product Acceptance requires a qualified inspector using calibrated tools.
The employee could measure his part with calibrated or un-calibrated tools, but procedurally could not make an acceptance decision; any conclusions just would not count as far as product acceptance is concerned. An Employee’s measurements are never used on an inspection report or considered for inspection data.
There is value to us in allowing the employees to make their own unofficial measurements – mostly, it allows production to flow without overloading inspection and allows inspection to concentrate on a single part for a longer term. It also allows the employee to identify potential problems sooner and correct faster (no waiting for an available inspector). ]]
Control is not a problem, but calibration is expensive and the assignment of calibrated tools to personnel who cannot even use them for inspection seems like a poor use of company resources.
Is there any hope to keep our Employee-Owned Reference tools?