Corrective Action or Customer Complaint

[Ninja]

Yes but really depends on the product. Might have a customer shopping at Walmart but wanting Nordstrom service.

Cosmetic issues on industrial products are always pretty subjective.

Of course, and agreed...that's why you may choose to (tactfully) tell the customer to pound sand.
It does not, however, remove the complaint from being a complaint...it may simply steer your response to that complaint.

 

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Eddie:

Is this your proprietary product (you own the design) or did you make to the customer requirements provided to you?

Yes we designed the product and own the design.

 

[AndyN]

In my experience, product designers rarely handle criticism of their designs well. They feel it exposes them and that they are flawed - the human condition. Put it down to the lack of a robust design & development process. Make some improvements for the next products. Like, add a design FMEA to consider such opportunities for negative customer feedback.

 

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In my experience, product designers rarely handle criticism of their designs well. They feel it exposes them and that they are flawed - the human condition. Put it down to the lack of a robust design & development process. Make some improvements for the next products. Like, add a design FMEA to consider such opportunities for negative customer feedback.

I can 100% relate to what you say. I'm finding the toughest part of quality(I'm new at this) is the people element. Even suggesting we may need a corrective action causes people to get upset and become defensive. Also, I'm finding following up with people to remind then they have an action due soon or they are past due also ticks people off. I'm trying to figure out better way to deal with the people element...

 

[AndyN]

You can only do that when the leadership understand this isn't an attack on people. If they criticize people when things go wrong, someone (usually an outsider like a consultant) needs to help them see the error of their ways. You should have process owners - one for the design process - and everyone needs to have some education on root cause analysis.

As I asked previously, I believe, were the defects/complaints against clearly defined customer specifications? I've had experience where stuff was rejected but not for anything in the spec...

 

[Kronos147]

How are customer complaints recorded? Is there a threshold or formal decision process in place to escalate these to corrective actions?

Is a risk that the customer will choose a new supplier? Could this be better managed with your risk assessment process?

Many ways to address it. The question is, what makes the most sense in your environment and will be consistently conducted.

 

[Johnson]

Hi All,

We are ISO 9001:2015 certified and I have a situation I'm hoping you can point me in the right direction on.

We have a customer that was unhappy with a recent order for three different issues that they described as product defects. Please note they were oversees so our engineering team performed their analysis based on photos and descriptions of the defects. The end result was engineering deemed all complaints as cosmetic issues. The reported defects had no impact on the functionality of the product. I originally initiated a corrective action but after seeing engineering's analysis quickly realized I have no root cause, so after further discussion with engineering we're thinking of capturing this as a customer complaint as the customer didn't explicitly ask for a corrective action. Is this a reasonable solution?

If specific are helpful, the product we are selling is essentially an industrial ipad. Below are customer complaints and engineerings response.

Complaint 1: There was visible glue on the glass display on multiple units.
-Engineering's response: The glue is on a protective plastic cover that needs to be removed before the product can be used. The glue is not on the product itself.

Complaint 2: On the back of the product some units have a noticeable bow / warp of the plastic.
-Engineering's response: This is benign and has no impact on the functionality of the product.

Complaint 3: There is a noticeable gap between the glass and bezel on several of the products.
-Engineering's response: This is benign and has no impact on the functionality of the product.

Any other pointers for someone who is new the quality industry would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Eddie

I would suggest you may consider to change the wording “customer complaint" to "customer feedback”.
Customer complaint means customer is not satisfied no matter what the reason is. Normally that is because your product or service did not meet their "requirements". If it was a "customer complaint', you should implement root cause analysis and corrective actions.
But "customer feedback" may not mean unsatisfaction. That may mean customer has "higher expectation" though you product and service meet the written standards or specifications. For customer feedback, you may take "improvement actions" instead of "corrective actions".
So you may reject these customer complaints in a polite way, but you do need to take improvement actions to promote the customer satisfaction level.