Does your company use Interactive Electronic Forms and/or Documents?

Does your company use interactive/electronic forms?

  • Yes

    Votes: 17 65.4%
  • No

    Votes: 5 19.2%
  • In the process of converting from handwritten to interactive.

    Votes: 4 15.4%

  • Total voters
    26
M

mshell

#1
I am curious to know how many companies are still using handwritten forms. I received a supplier assessment from a potential customer that is 23 pages long and you have to handwrite each response. Is this common or are most organizations using interactive forms?
 
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C

Craig H.

#2
We are in the process of converting, and even going to the next level for some internal stuff - having the Operators enter data directly into the database.

As far as the qauestionaires, etc., go, when you get a .pdf file if you have Acrobat Standard you can use text boxes in Advanced Edit to insert text. Then save and email back to whoever sent it.

Since I have been told on more than one occasion that my handwriting looks as though it was done by a drunken Chinese Chicken, this has come in handy.

(BTW, no insult meant to the Chinese, but to westerners who don't understand the language, Chinese writing is hard for us to comprehend).
 

Helmut Jilling

Auditor / Consultant
#3
mshell said:
I am curious to know how many companies are still using handwritten forms. I received a supplier assessment from a potential customer that is 23 pages long and you have to handwrite each response. Is this common or are most organizations using interactive forms?

of the companies I audit, I would put the progress at the 30-40% mark. Most have some forms they fill out online, but many more they still do manually. The best may be at the 80-90% level. The least modernized are still at 5%. Some do even agree that there would be a benefit.

PS: a significant factor is whether they have an aggressive computer support department. Also, when there are more than one site, it tends to drive it.
 
J

Joe Cruse

#4
We have a little of both. All of the lab stuff is now electronic, though we use handwritten worksheets and then transfer. Much of the stuff I have for the qms is now electronic, including CA/PA, complaints, and supplier issues. We can do supplier surveys either way.

I'm continually surprised to see, even among what I believe to be fairly progressive customers, the need to have the supply base fill out 4-to-20 page surveys, EVEN when the supplier is registered to a recogized business standard like ISO 9001:2000. We received 3 this week from 2 steel companies, both pretty progressive companies. We had one from one company that asked to just fill out part of page one, if we were registered to a standard, and provide a copy of our cert. This is the way it "should" be, if you're going to do these. The other came from different plants of the same company. They both asked about registration ot a standard and for a copy of our cert if we had one. Then you still have to fill out 7 pages of the survey, which asked how we met the high points of the 9001:2000 std.

I don't get it!!!

They did ask for comments, and so I asked why they had suppliers do this if they were registered to one of the standards they require.
 

Helmut Jilling

Auditor / Consultant
#5
Joe Cruse said:
...I'm continually surprised to see, even among what I believe to be fairly progressive customers, the need to have the supply base fill out 4-to-20 page surveys, EVEN when the supplier is registered to a recogized business standard like ISO 9001:2000.

...We had one from one company that asked to just fill out part of page one, if we were registered to a standard, and provide a copy of our cert. This is the way it "should" be...

...They both asked about registration to a standard and for a copy of our cert if we had one. Then you still have to fill out 7 pages of the survey, which asked how we met the high points of the 9001:2000 std.

I don't get it!!!

They did ask for comments, and so I asked why they had suppliers do this if they were registered to one of the standards they require.
I fully agree. I encourage all my clients to stop requiring certified suppliers from answering pages of questions where the answers are already a given. Make the questions relevant and meaningful.

If all of us keep after this, we can get more customers to become intelligent. And, if you are doing this to your suppliers, STOP it! If they are certified, don't ask if they have a quality system and other givens. Limit yourself to meaningful questions.
 
D

Don Palmer

#6
Help stamp out lame desktop q/questionnaires

Joe Cruse said:
I don't get it!!!

They did ask for comments, and so I asked why they had suppliers do this if they were registered to one of the standards they require.
Joe, good for you. I ask my customers the same question. When they respond (rarely) they always tell me "Because our qms says we have to do it..." Given open opportunity to discuss this issue further with a customer, they most always admit they do this because someone else wrote their qms manuals, and they accepted it as a procedure they could not change.

I'm of the opinion, these customers don't truly understand the requirement and intent of ISO 9001:2000 standard.

hjilling said:
I fully agree. I encourage all my clients to stop requiring certified suppliers from answering pages of questions where the answers are already a given. Make the questions relevant and meaningful.

If all of us keep after this, we can get more customers to become intelligent. And, if you are doing this to your suppliers, STOP it! If they are certified, don't ask if they have a quality system and other givens. Limit yourself to meaningful questions.
:agree1:

For about 2 years now, when I receive desktop q/questionnaires from a customer, I send them copies of my certifications and a cover letter with a standard quality questionnaire response.

The cover letter says something to the effect that, 'due to the volume of requests received from customers, we respectfully ask that they accept our certification copies and our standard response.' And that if they need further information, I am more than eager to assist. Also, I state that they (the customer) are encouraged to visit our facilities (pre-arranged) to conduct an onsite regarding any detailed concerns they may have. (Haven't had any takers yet.) :rolleyes:

Haven't worked the numbers, but I think about 80-85% of my customers accept what I offer in lieu of their 5-20 page form.
 

Helmut Jilling

Auditor / Consultant
#7
Don Palmer said:
Haven't worked the numbers, but I think about 80-85% of my customers accept what I offer in lieu of their 5-20 page form.

That is a wonderful statistic. I will encourage all clients to begin to try it. Maybe we can finally bury this silly requirement, or at least limit it to those problem situations where it actually makes sense.:applause:
 
D

Don Palmer

#8
hjilling said:
That is a wonderful statistic. I will encourage all clients to begin to try it. Maybe we can finally bury this silly requirement, or at least limit it to those problem situations where it actually makes sense.:applause:
Likewise, we evaluate and select our suppliers based upon copies of their certification to regulatory/standardization requirements and any other documentation they choose to provide. Thereafter, we limit re-evaluation to times when supplier quality product or service falls below acceptable level.
 
J

Joe Cruse

#9
That's pretty good, Don! :applause: :applause: We follow your line of thought, and do not send these things out year after year to established suppliers, and don't write ourselves into doing things like this. I agree that many purchasing folks think the standards MAKE them do this, but it doesn't.

Our volume of surveys seemed to drop about 3 years ago, but we must be back in the update portion of the cycle, because I've received nearly a dozen in the last few weeks. The majority do the smart thing, and only require one to fill out the contact section on the front page, and then send a copy of the ISO cert if the company is registered, or fill out the rest if not registered. But we still see some that want all 2000 pages filled in :lol: .

I changed our supplier survey up a few years ago to reflect my philosophy on this also. Fill out page 1, with all the contact info, and send me a copy of your cert if you're registered. If not, 3 more pages of fairly simple stuff about your capabilites in supplying us a quality product. None of the invasive "Give me your last 4 years income, top ten customers, and credit info" stuff that no one really wants to give out. We refuse to post financials in these surveys.

I also love it when a company sends you these 20 page surveys to fill out in detail, but you haven't supplied them in a few years and have no future business booked with them. When I've called and asked the customer, they say, "Well, you're not currently supplying us, but we need to keep you as a certified supplier for our files". This sometimes means that we were dropped because of pricing issues in favor of a foreign, non-registered company, but they want us in their file as a registered supplier. I love it.
 
C

CliffK

#10
This thread has triggered a few thoughts, which I can't resist sharing.:tg:

All you need to do is mention "productivity enhancement" one time and at least a few employees will go into passive resistance mode.:(

Quoted to me more than once, "We've been doing things this way for XX years. Why should we change now?"

This one made me shake my head: "This information changes too often to put it on a computer."

Here's a dreadful pattern I've seen far too often:
- employee finds form in electronic archive
- employee prints form
- employee fills out form by hand
- employee forwards form to another for data entry
- employee #2 enters data into computer
- employee #2 files completed form
- both completed form and data in computer become quality records

About supplier surveys, I think this story neatly sums up their true value. About 1995 or so I was consulting (ISO 9001) for a company that shall not be named. The QA manager was answering a supplier survey. The question was, "Does your company have a procedure for design control?" He answered yes. I knew this was not the case and I asked him about it. His answer? "I just tell 'em what they want to hear. If they want to prove otherwise, let 'em come down here and audit us."
 
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