Monitoring & Measurement of Product

[SteelWoman]

Depends on what the COA says and what YOUR own internal requirements are. For instance we require suppliers to certify the steel they send us, and we take that information, but we only use it as a comparison, because we then turn around and test it ourselves in house. In that scenario OUR test is what matters, so we must maintain records of our test. If we didn't do that - if we brought in steel and used the vendor's test as the gospel for what that material is, then yes we'd have to keep a copy of that test. No, we wouldn't have to know how to perform the ASTM test it REFERENCES - that burden is on the vendor UNLESS I happen to have a customer who requires that I show my material has been tested to a PARTICULAR ASTM spec, in which case I'd have to know that that requirement is being met by my vendor.

 

[RoxaneB]

Depends on what the COA says and what YOUR own internal requirements are. For instance we require suppliers to certify the steel they send us, and we take that information, but we only use it as a comparison, because we then turn around and test it ourselves in house. In that scenario OUR test is what matters, so we must maintain records of our test. If we didn't do that - if we brought in steel and used the vendor's test as the gospel for what that material is, then yes we'd have to keep a copy of that test. No, we wouldn't have to know how to perform the ASTM test it REFERENCES - that burden is on the vendor UNLESS I happen to have a customer who requires that I show my material has been tested to a PARTICULAR ASTM spec, in which case I'd have to know that that requirement is being met by my vendor.

You mean you don't trust us steel mills to put the right information on the mill certificate? Just kidding!

 

[mshell]

Specs Again

If I decide to purchase a product based on the manufacturer's datasheet, I obtain/archive a copy of the datasheet and the product works well for me. Do I have to create internal purchasing specifications or can my purchase order state that the product must be produced per the manufacturers requirements and it must be product XXXX.

Also, can I use a COA that states that product XXXX meets the manufacturing specifications of my supplier as proof of material conformance?

 

[Icy Mountain]

If I decide to purchase a product based on the manufacturer's datasheet, I obtain/archive a copy of the datasheet and the product works well for me. Do I have to create internal purchasing specifications or can my purchase order state that the product must be produced per the manufacturers requirements and it must be product XXXX.

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We purchase a many, many semiconductors by manufacturer's name and number. We match only name, number and quantity to the parts received at incoming. We'd go broke testing every spec we're interested in. We expect Motorola, Texas Instruments, et al. to make their parts correctly. I, too, archive product spec sheets (gotta love those websites and pdfs). A distributor recently sent us 2 year old transistors. Our design was based on 1.5 year old data sheets and samples that met the specifications of the data sheet. The 2 year old parts were a previous design (with a 4 year old data sheet, we knew about these, they didn't work in our design). They did not meet the specifications of the new parts. Distributor convinced by evidence to pay for resulting scrap.

 

[Mike S.]

Your answer will no doubt partly depend on the situation, the type of parts, their criticality, industry practice, # of different parts involved, etc. But, for sure sometimes manufacturers put out data sheets, then later revise the data without you knowing it. If you have a data sheet with a revision indicator, you should be okay saying something like "P/N 123-C as per mfr. data sheet ABC Rev. 12/13/02". If there is no rev. indicator, or to be extra-safe, you could call-out the data from the mfr's. data sheet that you have in front of you on your PO, so even if the data sheet was revised, the vendor still knows what you want.