Hi.
One of the companies I previously worked for was a sub-contract manufacturer. Whilst we actively engaged with our customers from a Design for Manufacture point-of-view, we did no design ourselves.
There was some concern that the Tools/Jigs we designed to help with manufacturing might need to be managed in accordance with the design section, but some careful wording, specifically avoiding the 'D' word and the placement of Tool specification and manufacturing under product realization meant that this was not an issue.
Therefore when we applied for 9000:2000 accreditation, the Quality Manual under that section merely made a simple statement to the effect the the organisation did not have a design department as it was a manufacturing service provider and that as such, this section of the standard is not applicable.
The auditor looked this over, asked a few questions such as "Do you see yourselves manufacturing OEM parts at any point?" and "Have you registered any patents for products or tooling you have manufactured in the past?" before moving on.
This section had no comments made against it in final summing up, and accreditation was received.
As a final note, watch the wording of your scope (which will appear on the certificate- this should be fairly explicit about what you do, and as such, by inference, what you do not).
I hope that this helps.
Regards,
Pistonbroke.
