Certificate of Conformance/Compliance (CofC) - Share your best business practices

[SLSHappy]

Help! I was hoping someone could share their best business practices for how you handle who signs the CofC upon shipping product to the customer. Currently when a product is ready to be shipped, the shipping manager/clerk comes to me, the Quality Manager, to sign off on the CofC (or my designee). Two problems I see with this. First and what I think is the most major issue is that I don't actually confirm anything w/ respects to the product being shipped (i.e. identity, quantity, test results, etc.). I don't handle the product at all. I basically 'blindly' sign the CofC. Second, it waste so much time for shipping to run up & down the hall looking for someone to sign the CofC before they can actually ship product out the door. A little history/back ground info.: I'm still fairly new to my company as well as FAA requirements. We produce telephones for airplanes and have approximately 50 employees. Our Quality Manual has been approved by FAA and I have the task to get us AS9100 registered. I've read the thread re: this matter from Sept. 2005 but I'm still not clear on the best practice for CofC's. Help!!!!! From the thread I read, I certainly don't want to be held liable if something goes wrong w/ the product after delivery to our customer however it just seems there has to be a better way to handle this process. Any contributions will be GREATLY appreciated!

 

[Howard Atkins]

There have been some discussions on this before
C of C Liability - Person who signs a certificate of conformance

 

[SLSHappy]

Thank you for the reference however I have read the prior discussions/threads and mentioned in my post that I had but am still in need of further clarification. I tried to elaborate on my circumstances in hopes that someone would be able to shine a different light on this matter to be of better assistance to me. So I'm still in desperate need of some feedback from the forum.

 

[Jim Wynne]

Thank you for the reference however I have read the prior discussions/threads and mentioned in my post that I had but am still in need of further clarification. I tried to elaborate on my circumstances in hopes that someone would be able to shine a different light on this matter to be of better assistance to me. So I'm still in desperate need of some feedback from the forum.

Is it safe to assume that the C of C you're referring to is a customer requirement? Is there also a requirement for a signature? If not, remove the signature blank from the form, and don't sign it.

As you read in the other thread, a C of C is generally worthless; it does nothing legally that just shipping the material to the customer against a PO doesn't do. If you're concern is that you don't have reasonable confidence that the material you're signing for does conform, that's a different problem.

 

[RoxaneB]

Who, in your opinion SLSHappy, should be signing off on your CofC? I look at it from this approach....yes, you may be involved in the hands-on manufacturing of the product, but your signature is saying "The people who made the product are competent. The people who tested and verified the produt are competent. The people who ensured our process and testing equipment are competent. The people who verified our processes and systems are competent. Ergo, this product meets your requirements."

Typically, the Quality Person signs the CofC...in my working experience.

 

[Al Rosen]

I'm with Jim. If that doesn't work, authorize the shipping clerk to sign the cert.

 

[quality.shesha]

Help! I was hoping someone could share their best business practices for how you handle who signs the CofC upon shipping product to the customer. Currently when a product is ready to be shipped, the shipping manager/clerk comes to me, the Quality Manager, to sign off on the CofC (or my designee). Two problems I see with this. First and what I think is the most major issue is that I don't actually confirm anything w/ respects to the product being shipped (i.e. identity, quantity, test results, etc.). I don't handle the product at all. I basically 'blindly' sign the CofC. Second, it waste so much time for shipping to run up & down the hall looking for someone to sign the CofC before they can actually ship product out the door. A little history/back ground info.: I'm still fairly new to my company as well as FAA requirements. We produce telephones for airplanes and have approximately 50 employees. Our Quality Manual has been approved by FAA and I have the task to get us AS9100 registered. I've read the thread re: this matter from Sept. 2005 but I'm still not clear on the best practice for CofC's. Help!!!!! From the thread I read, I certainly don't want to be held liable if something goes wrong w/ the product after delivery to our customer however it just seems there has to be a better way to handle this process. Any contributions will be GREATLY appreciated!

Hi SLSHappy,

I was working with one of the suppliers to Smith Aerospace who inturn shipped it to Boeing, we were supplying Intank & Out Tank Wire Harnesses.
Here we had the CofC to be sent along with the harnesses.
These had high end electrical testing.
In our case the CofC contained the signature of the Quality Manager & Manufacturing Manager along with the tracking details of the manufacturing.
It's a mandatory requirement & these CofC's should be retained until the product is in USE.
I will try to find out the format of CofC which we were using & try to post it.

Shesh

 

[Sidney Vianna]

Out of the box thinking

Any contributions will be GREATLY appreciated!

If I were you, I would make the company owner, president or general manager sign it. Sarbanes Oxley requires the CEO to attest the veracity of the financial reports. These people make the big money. With that, it should come accountability. They have the authority (and with that it should come responsibility) to ensure that the processes are running effective, don't they?. So, why shouldn't they be responsible for the veracity of a CoC?
In my experience, many people signing on a CoC have no idea of what they are signing for.

 

[Jim Wynne]

If I were you, I would make the company owner, president or general manager sign it. Sarbanes Oxley requires the CEO to attest the veracity of the financial reports. These people make the big money. With that, it should come accountability. They have the authority (and with that it should come responsibility) to ensure that the processes are running effective, don't they?. So, why shouldn't they be responsible for the veracity of a CoC?
In my experience, many people signing on a CoC have no idea of what they are signing for.

I may have told this story before, but if so it bears repeating here.
I worked for a company once that had some customers who demanded a notarized C of C. A newbie asked what notarization meant, and the operations VP, who happened to be within earshot, said "It means that one person lies and another one swears to it."

 

[SLSHappy]

Jim, I believe an actual signature on the CofC is a FAA requirement. However, I'll have to double check that since as I mentioned I'm still new to the world of FAA. If not, this would make life so much simpler. I have though had a customer call me to say that they were unable to read a signature on their CofC and that this was against FAA requirements so I'm thinking someone does have to sign (learning curves suck). We now don't have that person sign at all as it's their actual signature so we can't request him to make it more legible.

REBeyette, it's my personal belief that the CofC is basically a testament to the fact that a company's processes/system/people are in conformance/compliance and thus the product being shipped corresponds to the PO. Thus it really shouldn't matter who signs the CofC. Which leads me to Al's comment that we should be able to designate the shipping clerk to sign off on the CofC's.

Our CofC reads: "This statement certifies that the Component(s) described above conform to the corresponding purchase order and have been ceritified to comply with manufacturing data and functional requirements of the unit described. Test results on file with us or our supplier for examination and indicated conformance with applicable specification requirements".

So according to this statement, shipping is just signing off on the fact that our processes resulted as they should because everybody did his or her job, basically. For some reason though it's the belief of some in my company that a "shipping clerk" can't sign a CofC because it's a "quality" function. I wasn't sure if this was more a preference vs. general requirement (FAA maybe). The change that I'm suggesting to have the shipping clerk sign is being taken as earth shattering.