AS9100D 8.2.1 Review Requirements for Products and Services

[Kathy Beagle]

Hi Folks, I work for a thermoplastic sheet company that is going after AS9100D certification and I am getting hung up on clause 8.2.1 and 4.2, specific to review of customer requirements. Most Aviation Customer PO's reference Terms and Conditions (some quite lengthy) as well as other additional customer procedures.

I may be over-thinking this, but as I study 8.2.1 and 4.2, I am coming to the alarming conclusion that I need to scan every PO for any reference to requirements (other than the normal product description/specs) and if, for instance the PO should reference any customer procedures, I should obtain copies, review them, document the review along with results of the review including implementation actions. The reason this is so worrisome is that many of these referenced documents will reference other documents, which reference other documents, and so on and so forth.........not to mention the inevitably referenced Terms and Conditions that are written by lawyers and legal departments.

All of our PO's are formally reviewed for the product related specifications stated on the PO's and I do review a lot of the systems requirements, but I do not document the reviews or the actions that come out of those systems requirements reviews. What exactly is the intent of 8.2.1 and 4.2 regarding customers' quality systems requirements for their suppliers? I have considered developing a matrix but we have hundreds of customers (not all Aviation but all products / processes will be included in the scope of the AS9100D certification) and it seems like this would be very difficult to effectively manage. How are other organizations managing the 4.2 and 8.2.1 requirements?

Thanks

 

[Big Jim]

Let's make this simple. Even under ISO 9001:2015, 8.2 requires that you consider ALL of the customer requirements and that you REVIEW all of the requirements before committing to supply. You need to look further than 8.2.1 though as it deals with customer communication. 8.2.2 deals with gathering the requirements and 8.2.3 deals with reviewing them.

It is a HORRIBLE business practice to agree to something you didn't make sure you fully understood. HUGE liability.

 

[Mike S.]

Contract review (8.2) is no fun unless you happen to enjoy such things (I hear such people are more rare than Bigfoot). No one seems to want to be "stuck" doing it. Many, maybe most, of the companies I have worked for or with often do not do a good job at this. They wanna get the order, book the order, get started on making it, not worry about "all that paperwork". And flowing requirements down to their subtier suppliers is even more neglected. As Jim said, this can be a very bad thing, but they get by with it so often that they can grow complacent until something blows up (literally or figuratively).

Many customers don't help matters any by spewing requirements, often unnecessary ones, like they are getting paid by the requirement and spreading them all over the place in PO text, terms and conditions documents, "quality code" documents, procurement specifications, SOWs, SDRLs, and others.
To do CR well, you have to allot time for it. It helps to have someone who doesn't hate it be responsible for it. It often requires a multi-disciplinary approach (i.e. you may sometimes need someone from Engineering or Finance to help). Developing a checklist can help.

It many industries is not easy or trivial.

 

[John Broomfield]

On large projects Bechtel had teams of engineers and specialists in construction reviewing drawings and specs for constructability at 30%, 70% and 100% stages of design completion; until the designers got them right.

These Bechtel staff were charged to the client, of course!

They in turn trained the client’s staff eventually to replace them.

 

[Kathy Beagle]

Thank you

Let's make this simple. Even under ISO 9001:2015, 8.2 requires that you consider ALL of the customer requirements and that you REVIEW all of the requirements before committing to supply. You need to look further than 8.2.1 though as it deals with customer communication. 8.2.2 deals with gathering the requirements and 8.2.3 deals with reviewing them.

It is a HORRIBLE business practice to agree to something you didn't make sure you fully understood. HUGE liability.