Responsibility for Product Paid for but not yet Shipped

[91What]

Does AS9100 address handling of product that has been paid for but not yet shipped? We have had customers who pay in advance but ask that we not ship the product until they request it. We might keep this paid made-to-order product for them for many months or years. Is it considered "customer property"? AS9100 8.5.3 Property Belonging to Customers or External Providers doesn't apply because this product is not provided by the customer. Perhaps only 8.5.2 Identification and Traceability: we're only required to identify the product as theirs?

 

[Sidney Vianna]

Is it considered "customer property"?

Yes.

AS9100 8.5.3 Property Belonging to Customers or External Providers doesn't apply because this product is not provided by the customer.

It DOES apply as clearly mentioned in the very first paragraph of the section in the AS9100 standard that reads

The organization shall exercise care with property belonging to customers or external providers while it is under the organization’s control or being used by the organization.

Perhaps only 8.5.2 Identification and Traceability: we're only required to identify the product as theirs?

8.5.4 - Preservation is a critical aspect as well.

 

[Jim Wynne]

This is an unusual situation in my experience. Unheard of, actually. Nonetheless, it is customer property, and you can't go wrong by applying the 8.5.3 requirements, regardless of "provision."

 

[Tagin]

In our 9001 org, we often deal with customers who need long lifecycle on computer components that have short lifecycles. Therefore, we purchase an agreed-upon batch of such components, the customers pays for them, and we can keep them at our facility for years (since we will integrate them into the final computer systems down the road per their order schedule). We consider those components as customer equipment (and so do the 9001 auditors we've had), and we assign them unique part numbers to identify them, label, and store as we would other components.

We have also had the situation of finished goods paid for but the customer isn't ready for delivery yet. For those cases, we have a designated warehouse area specifically for such customer equipment.

 

[blackholequasar]

We have that same issue where I work. We develop PCBs for the government - they pay for the order (thanks Uncle Sam) and then ask we only ship them in shipments of 12 and 13 over the course of a yeah. We can either build 12/13 boards every other week or build the entire order and ship out as needed (which is what we do). While they are at our facility, they are in a locked room as protected customer property.