D
D.Scott
Customer Specifications
This is an old topic, but one which keeps rearing it’s ugly head.
QS-9000 4.5.2.1 Engineering Specifications states:
“The supplier shall establish a procedure to assure the
timely review (e.g. business “days”, not weeks or months), distribution and implementation of all customer engineering standards/specifications and changes.”
Obviously, everybody has a procedure stating how the review, distribution and implementation will be done. What about the determination of when a change is made?
I have a contract with Global (I am sure there are many others) to tell me when one of the ASTM, ANSI, IFI, ISO, SAE, and a whole bunch more, changes. They can even go so far as to tell me when some of the GM or Ford documents change (although I usually get notified a couple of months later). The problem I have is all the hundreds of customer specs that aren’t available. How do I track these? Logically I can’t call each customer daily to ask if they have changed anything. There is no directory to refer to and the contract agencies are no help.
When we quote a job, the customer specifies the spec we are to meet. Usually, these are one of the standard ones I mentioned earlier. We know we are quoting to the latest revision because Global says so. What if the spec we are asked to meet is “Fitzwilly P-2341”? We will ask for a copy of the spec which the customer gladly gives us. How do I show that the revision I have is current? There is no way for me to know if it changes unless Fitzwilly tells me. Can I state in my procedure that revision changes to part specific specifications is controlled and maintained by the customer? After all, the customer is required by QS-9000 to ensure use of current documents at all points of use – this should include their notification to us.
How do some of the rest of you handle this?
Dave
This is an old topic, but one which keeps rearing it’s ugly head.
QS-9000 4.5.2.1 Engineering Specifications states:
“The supplier shall establish a procedure to assure the
timely review (e.g. business “days”, not weeks or months), distribution and implementation of all customer engineering standards/specifications and changes.”
Obviously, everybody has a procedure stating how the review, distribution and implementation will be done. What about the determination of when a change is made?
I have a contract with Global (I am sure there are many others) to tell me when one of the ASTM, ANSI, IFI, ISO, SAE, and a whole bunch more, changes. They can even go so far as to tell me when some of the GM or Ford documents change (although I usually get notified a couple of months later). The problem I have is all the hundreds of customer specs that aren’t available. How do I track these? Logically I can’t call each customer daily to ask if they have changed anything. There is no directory to refer to and the contract agencies are no help.
When we quote a job, the customer specifies the spec we are to meet. Usually, these are one of the standard ones I mentioned earlier. We know we are quoting to the latest revision because Global says so. What if the spec we are asked to meet is “Fitzwilly P-2341”? We will ask for a copy of the spec which the customer gladly gives us. How do I show that the revision I have is current? There is no way for me to know if it changes unless Fitzwilly tells me. Can I state in my procedure that revision changes to part specific specifications is controlled and maintained by the customer? After all, the customer is required by QS-9000 to ensure use of current documents at all points of use – this should include their notification to us.
How do some of the rest of you handle this?
Dave