Control of documents of External Origin - Specifications from our customers

[Mike3903]

We are a company ISO9001:200 that receives a fair amount of specifications from our customers to use, which we control once they are put into our system. My question is to other companies out there do you stamp all pages with controlled or uncontrolled or just the cover sheet. My problem is we had an auditor tell me that we had to stamp all sheets with some type of notation due to what would happen if the cover sheet got ripped off and then we would not know if the document were controlled, uncontrolled or obsolete.
I feel stamping the front sheet of each specification is sufficient enough.
What does everyone else do?

 

[Al Rosen]

We are a company ISO9001:200 that receives a fair amount of specifications from our customers to use, which we control once they are put into our system. My question is to other companies out there do you stamp all pages with controlled or uncontrolled or just the cover sheet. My problem is we had an auditor tell me that we had to stamp all sheets with some type of notation due to what would happen if the cover sheet got ripped off and then we would not know if the document were controlled, uncontrolled or obsolete.
I feel stamping the front sheet of each specification is sufficient enough.
What does everyone else do?

Hi Mike:

Why not add a statement to your procedure that a document without a cover sheet is considered uncontrolled and requires verification of revision status.

 

[Cari Spears]

We control a lot of external standards and customer provided technical orders, "Supplier Requirements" manuals, configuration management documents, etc. We only stamp the front page also - but we rarely have more than one copy of each. I'd tell your auditor that in the unlikely event that a front page is missing, all I'd have to do is go online, contact my customer or somehow verify that I have the current version. Usually documents of this type contain a header or footer denoting the doc name and revision and page X of X. I don't think this is a big issue - especially if these documents appeared to be maintained in a fashion that they are not likely to become dogeared or come up missing.

 

[Mike3903]

Thanks for the reply Al
I think I will add your suggestion to our procedure sounds like a great idea and a cover your but statement.

Also we are about to put all of our specifications into a computer program by scanning them all which will all soon be digital. So this will eliminate this problem. But before I scan all of these documents I want to make sure we do it correctly.

 

[Tom W]

We have this same type of situation. We have many cusomter specs, and we control them by simpling having just the one copy. Copies are not made of the specs, that way the one in the file is the controlled copy. IMO - Stampling each page is a detail that is an opinion and not a requirement. The auditor had that opinion, not an issue that should be a nonconformance unless your system said you would stamp each page.

By having them in the part file and only in the part file assures us that the control is maintained. In essance we control the file and not the individual spec. We also maintain the obsolete old revisions (properly identified of course) in the file as well to assist in the showing change history.

 

[Mike3903]

Does everyone feel that digital documents should be treated the same or is there something that I have missed reviewing the ISO standard.

I believe that as long as I control digital documents the same as paper I should be all set or should I put a separate notation on the cover sheet like: IF THIS DOCUMENT IS REPRODUCED IT IS UNCONTROLLED

 

[Brad Serangeli]

I believe that you will need to control your digital copy as well as any hard copy. Your statement for the cover sheet should allow you to show that you control the document .

 

[db]

I believe that you will need to control your digital copy as well as any hard copy. Your statement for the cover sheet should allow you to show that you control the document .

Note 3 of 4.2.1 states that "documentation can be in any form or type of medium." That would include electronic.

 

[Mike3903]

Thanks everyone for your comments I appreciate the feedback.

 

[mshell]

Mike,

We simply say that all controlled documents reside on our intranet and any needed hard copies must be compared to the controlled master prior to use. All employees are trained in this practice and we have placed computers in the production area to reduce the need for hard copy documents.

mshell