Purchasing Controls on Change Management of Literature/Labeling

[abublitz]

Hi all,

Curious on what the best practice would be in regards to Purchasing Controls when dealing with changes on literature/labeling.

From a QA/QMS side of things, the process seems straightforward to me but I'm getting a lot of pushback from our purchasing department for being 'ass backwards'.

Summary of the process:

1) A change is identified as being needed to the artwork, raw material or approved manufacturer/supplier
2) If required, redlines/preliminary documents are created
3) Communication is started with the manufacturer/supplier and a proof is requested
4) Proof is obtained and included in the ECO (engineering change order) process
5) ECO is approved and the changes are implemented
6) Purchasing places a PO for the new revision of material
7) Incoming inspection does a 1st article inspection of the new revision

I am told the 'ass backwards' part is requiring a proof prior to submitting a PO because "why would they do work for free?". Now I find it perfectly reasonable for the manufacturer/supplier to charge us for creating a proof because they are providing a service.

We've recently ran into issues with manufacturers/suppliers being changed on the AVL and the printed product coming in wrong. This should have been caught if they had provided us a proof. Some of this stuff has pretty long lead times, especially when changes are involved so mistakes can be pretty critical.

Am I the crazy one here?

 

[Ed Panek]

A proof is recognition of :

You understand what we want you to make
You can make it

When you buy a pizza they have picture proofs on their website or on their restaurant wall menu of what you and they agree upon of what you are paying them for and what you will receive.

Now instead of one pizza, imagine you are buying 10,000 pizzas. Now, before you buy 10,00 pizzas you may want to (read SHOULD) sample the pizza by buying a small pizza to try it out for quality. That's normal stuff.

 

[yodon]

I guess I'm not exactly clear what the issue is. Is your purchasing department pushing back on the documented procedure above? Is the label provider requiring a purchase order for samples? If so, that's just a purchase that follows the normal procedure. Is purchasing requesting the proofs? Why NOT structure the purchase order to get proofs first (maybe at a nominal cost) followed by the full run after the proofs are approved?

 

[abublitz]

I guess I'm not exactly clear what the issue is. Is your purchasing department pushing back on the documented procedure above? Is the label provider requiring a purchase order for samples? If so, that's just a purchase that follows the normal procedure. Is purchasing requesting the proofs? Why NOT structure the purchase order to get proofs first (maybe at a nominal cost) followed by the full run after the proofs are approved?

Mostly just reassurance that I'm not crazy and that is the 'normal' process for Purchasing Controls regarding labeling and literature.