Customer Waiver Form for Supplier QMS Exemptions - Seeking an Example

[Rowdy]

I was just given the task to come up with a waiver form that will be sent to various customers requesting a waiver for nine (Out of 160) suppliers who are not (and do not plan to be) ISO/QS registered. My company is currently QS9000 registered and working towards TS. I am forced to use these suppliers for the following reasons: 1) They Supply a unique component not found elsewhere 2) Unable to find an ISO registerd Supplier that provides service 3) My Company and end customer would see a huge price increase if component is resourced.
Does anybody have a sample form I could take a look at? I am having trouble figuring out exactly what the form should say. It would be greatly appreciated.

Thank You

 

[Wes Bucey]

Welcome to the Cove, Rowdy!

Please be patient. You've asked your question on a weekend and many of our regulars take the weekend off. I, personally, don't have such a waiver, but I hope one or more of our Covers can supply one or more for you to choose from.

In lieu of an answer from us, I suggest you call one of your friendliest customers and ask if they have signed such waivers for other suppliers and could send you a copy with the supplier's names edited out.

Also, don't hesitate to talk to the management at the registrar you have chosen for TS16949 and ask if they have such waivers, since they will have to be approving your system based on those waivers.

 

[Claes Gefvenberg]

Yup. What the man said... Welcome to the Cove

/Claes

 

[CarolX]

Hi Rowdy and welcome to the Cove,

Is there another way to skin this cat???
Could you address this internally, as in performing additional inspection of the product at incoming inspection?
Although our system is only ISO, not QS/TS, I have a method to deal with similar situation.
"In the event a supplier can not or will not comply with the requirements and is a sole source for the product, all other activities shall be suspended and parts will be subjected to tightened inspection at incoming inspection."

 

[Rowdy]

Thank you for the warm welcome. The quick feed back is greatly appreciated. I have enjoyed reading through the forum and have learned many things already. I hope to be able to contribute soon. Wes, your suggestions were excellent. I hadn't thought of contacting a customer or registrar for examples. Those are great ideas that I will definitely pursue. Carolx, thanks for the suggestion but it looks like I am really limited to two options: 1)Get customer waiver 2) Perform audit on suppliers (I was just infomormed that I will be going to Lead Auditor Training next month! Fun!).


Thanks again

Rowdy

 

[Wes Bucey]

Just a "bump up" to bring this item to focus - it got lost in the doldrums of the weekend. Anyone with more ideas?

 

[michelle8075]

I can feel your pain. We are QS-9000 TE registered right now, and have had the same type of issues. I believe that you are asking about a supplier that is not on your customer approved source list and they are not 9K2K, etc. Best also to check the IAIG the "C9" Sactioned Intrerpreations for QS-9000

To help you save alot of aggregation, and to only focus on the "9" that are not we have written into our procedure what we can.
We have not, to this date have received (1) customer to sign off (waiver) to use a particular supplier that is not (ISO-9001:2000 etc.). We have tried and tried and tried, and the customers are VERY RELUCTANT in my case to give me a waiver (they don't want responsibility).

How we have handled this.... we use the attached Supplier Evaluation sheet. Suppliers falling under "Mom & Pop" as defined in our procedure, or as "Part of a Large Corp. who are not 9K2K certified, we show that we performed a site audit on them (using our RAB Certified Lead Auditors). Remember if you use a distributor they do not fall under this, they do not need to be 9K2K certified. YTheir waiver is that they are a distributor.

We have in our procedure, what we classify as mom and pop shop. "Mom and Pop Shop":

1. A shop that is not registered to a current version of the ISO 9000 Quality Management Series of Standards, excluding ISO 9003; plus any requirements specified by the customer.
2. Employs twenty (20) or fewer employees.
3. Can not be a part of a larger company.

D"istributors": Suppliers at which no added manufacturing value is added to parts or material.

Our procedure states:
XYZ selects subcontractors on the basis of their ability to meet subcontract requirements including the quality system and any specific quality assurance requirements.

Suppliers must meet minimum requirements as defined below.

 Subcontractor quality system development with the goal of subcontractor compliance to QS9000 TE requirements, and
 Subcontractor assessment by the OEM customer, or
 Subcontractor assessment by an OEM customer-approved second party, or
 Subcontractor assessment by an accredited third party certification body / registrar, or
 Subcontractor assessment by XYZ, or
 Subcontractor assessment / certification waiver by XYZ Company (Reference IASG Sanctioned QS-9000 Interpretations: 03/31/03: C9).

And when all else fails, we have showed our internal auditor evidence through the Supplier Evaulation form that we had requested this waiver and have no response. We also showed that these suppliers were reviewed (audited).

Sorry this jumps around a bit.....

 

[kaseyp]

Michelle8075,

Thank you for all the information. It sounds like you know exactly what I am going through. The procedure information and the supplier evaluation form have definitely give me some direction. I found it interesing but not suprising that customers are soo reluctant to sign these type of waivers.
You had mentioned in your post that you perform on site audits using an RAB certified Lead Auditor. Being that you must audit to QS9000 elements, does the Lead Auditor have to be certified to QS9000 training or will ISO9000 or TS be sufficient? I would assume it would be very difficult to find Lead Auditor Training to QS9000 since it is going away soon.

Thanks again for your help

 

[michelle8075]

You had mentioned in your post that you perform on site audits using an RAB certified Lead Auditor. Being that you must audit to QS9000 elements, does the Lead Auditor have to be certified to QS9000 training or will ISO9000 or TS be sufficient? I would assume it would be very difficult to find Lead Auditor Training to QS9000 since it is going away

Well, for QS-9000 TE our last Quality Manager was a certifiied RAB Certified LEAD auditor for QS-9000, and I worked directly under the QM as an internal auditor. Now, I am the new QM. I and RAB Certified Lead auditor in ISO-9001:2000. So, basically my organization feels that a RAB lead auditor is a skill, and I am now regarded the QS-9000 Lead Auditor within my company. However, I am able to audit QS-9000 because #1, I have had 6 years under a lead auditor for QS-9000 and in my honest opinion, I feel that once you are a Certified Lead Auditor to one of these standards, you can translate it to either one. However, if you are going to audit a company that is QS-9000, TS, ISO you MUST know that standard, you must do your homework, but the audit itself and your skill is the same. When you go to audit a supplier, you have to have some understanding of their business and what your business is looking for in a vendor.

Otherwise, glad to hear that our Supplier Evaluation form can be of some assitance to you. Everyone here at the Cove has over and over given me GREAT examples and EXCELLENT advice. Great to hear that I may have given you some assistance.

It looks like you are a new user to the cove like myself. It is a great Quality tool!

 

[Kevin H]

re: TS requirement for ISO 9001 for suppliers

Actually, as I read ISO/TS 16949, and the FAQ for supplier development from IAOB, you can escape requiring your supplier to be ISO 9001:2000 registered if they do not do any manufacturing and just distribute the part/raw material/ etc. to you. If they are not a distributor, you need at the minimum to have a plan for all suppliers to achieve ISO 9001:2000 registration within the 3 year span of your TS certificate, or you need to get approval from the customer for an alternative approach. You cannot stake out exceptions for "Mom & Pop" shops. After our last surveillance audit, our auditor volunteered that he had been contracted to help get a 3 person import shop registered to ISO 9001:2000 because many of their customers were ISO/TS and requiring them to get registered.

That means that you can try to obtain customer waivers for a supplier that refuses to register to ISO 9001:2000. You can also seek customer approval of an audit program to develop supplier's quality systems to comply with ISO 9001. An audit program that you set up independently of your customer's approval does not meet the ISO/TS requirement.

You can also prepare and present a plan to your ISO/TS registrar that ensures that all of your production/service parts suppliers are ISO 9001:2000 registered within the 3 years of your certificate.

Regards.