Dan:
Exactly! We hold ISO9002/QS and are a foundry with around 100 active customers which we make 300+ different castings for. We have 4 very low volume automotive parts for Tier 1. Volume so low, that no one in the industry would touch them. We do a few parts for a tier two, these are slightly higher volume. The concern is holding our QS for <2% of our sales. The registrar left us today with 5 minors all QS related. He suggested we keep an eye on the possible migration of QS to 16949 and to consider long and hard whether it was prudent to retain our QS especially if we were not in pursuit of any more automotive (which we are not). He also said upon leaving that we were a "Golden ISO House" and that we meet the requirements of the standard by a mile! We make castings for some customers from a little more than a sketch on a cocktail napkin. With the exception of our automotive friends ISO is more than adequate to our customer base. With that many customers registration has spared us the all the customer desk and on-site surveys.
When I spoke of "wall to wall" I was referring to all products and all processes falling under the auspice of QS or 16949. One area that comes to mind that would have a big impact is 4.2.5.3 (??) where tooling requires "full" dimensional inspection. Some of our molds are so large they cannot be tossed up on a CMM and would be extremely cost prohibitive to inspect any other way especially with the geometry and number of characteristics that may be involved. We will typically look at cross parting line stuff and take steps to ensure through inprocess checks during mold build that we're on track, but "full dimensional" inspection, no way! We will sample the tool, do a 100% layout, make minor adjustments for shrinkage (as with any tool) sample again and submit. Right now our registrar interprets that requirement to apply only to automotive tools. His comment was that under 16949 a requirement like that would apply to ALL tools.
That was the essence of my question. Along with
FMEA's, PPAP's and the like. For example, As everyone knows, there are two ways to do a FMEA, 1) as window dressing and, 2) as an honest to goodness working document and tool for use. The latter is where we all need to be but with my staff resources at a premium, the last thing I want to do allocate their time to a task where there isn't a real return on the investment. In some cases we perform FMEA's on products where the customer doesn't want one but we see it as good business practice when all potential issues are taken into account. On another note to kill more trees simply for window dressing is absurd. Whew!!So......I was wondering if 949 was "wall to wall". I like your concept of changing focus to the process though. Interesting thought. Thanks for the input...Sorry about the length guys, I tend to get on my soap box..Mike