Helmut, you hit the nail on the head.
I have shipped over 120,000 of these parts to my customer, with just one part that was missing 2 of the 4 weld nuts. I have the 4 weld nuts attached at an outside source who is ISO certified.
Does that meen he has control over his processes?
He does now, becuase I forced him to go out and buy a new arbor press with a new pressure gauge so that he could more accurately test parts at a predermined frequincy and record the results.
Does that meen he does this every day? I can't be sure can I? But I do know that he is paying much more attention to the process, and since I am also doing weld destruct testing at my facility I will catch any suspect product prior to it leaving our house.
This goes back to Jans question about idiot auditors and certifying bodies. My source for the weldnut on this part should not have an ISO cert. I go to his facility and they perform no incoming inspection. They have no control plans over their processes. I had to create all of the records and control plans they needed for my job. Still though he is the best source I have found for the job. Should I "cut off my nose to spite my face" or help him attain the controls he needs to achieve conforming parts?
Registered to a Standard or not, if a supplier is doing custom work for you, it only makes sense that he perform the task and keep records in a way that gives you confidence you don't have to inspect and rework each piece.
Automotive supply chains demand a PPAP which means they are (should be) looking at the steps in a supplier's Control Plan to gain that confidence. Recent events with suppliers in China unilaterally changing Control Plans to introduce new, cheaper, more toxic materials which endanger end users from pets to children are proof there has been a breakdown in the process of whatever form of PPAP the OEMs have been depending upon.
Frankly, I believe some, if not most, of that breakdown is due to OEMs who are either greedy or lazy or both in forcing every last penny of profit from the supplier to fatten their own bottom line. Why do the OEMs do this? Because it is easier to do that than seek ways to legitimately reduce the processing cost throughout the supply chain with improved design and manufacturing methods. If the OEMs squeeze the supplier too tightly, there is no money for R&D and the supplier resorts to dubious shortcuts just to keep his head above water.
Long ago, Walt Kelly famously wrote in his
Pogo comic strip, [FONT=Arial, Arial, Helvetica]"We Have Met The Enemy and He Is Us" (
http://www.igopogo.com/we_have_met.htm)
The bottom line:
WE (the retail public) are ultimately the enemy who drives this whole crazy inverted and perverted system of fraud and chicanery when we refuse to look beyond acquisition price when we purchase goods and services. We preach a quality ethic in our professional lives and bemoan the fact our bosses won't listen to us and continue to buy from the cheapest supplier, yet we don't extend ourselves to carry the same message to our brethren in the retail marketplace who really drive the whole engine of "cheaper, regardless of quality."
For years, Quality wonks have whined, "There's never enough money to do it right in the first place, but there always seems to be enough for recalls and repairs or replacements when the shoddy work finally is detected by failing!"
What are WE doing to change that?
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I, for one, look in the mirror each morning and ask, "What can I do today to make a difference?"
