SOP Identification of Special Characteristics

[Sambasi]

I have implemented earliest version of ISO / TS 16949 but new to IATF 16949.
I made an SOP for "Identification of Special Characteristics" Please review and post your comments.

Your feedback will help me to improve the content of this SOP and as well write other SOPs.

Please suggest what can be considered as Performance Indicator for this process

Thanks in advance
SAMBASI

 

[Johnny Quality]

Sambasi,

I think you have a good document and I have the following praises and remarks for you. From top to bottom.

• Do you need a separate "reviewed/approved" and "issued" section? Would you be able to combine them?
• The Purpose section is good. It's good for documentation to have a scope.
• The document repeatedly calls for a multi-disciplined team. This is also good, I assume you have a document to reference what "MK / PU / DP/TX, QA / Engg" all are?
• The Process Manager is empty. Who is directly responsible for the process? A team? Individual?
• It's good you have "form the team" as step 1.
• Reviewing historical data is excellent. Learning from lessons in the past. This would also be a good place to mention customer specific requirements.
• No one is directly responsible for each of the plan-do-check-act sections?
• In the Planning section you should reference customer specific requirements.
• The remark in sequence 2 has a typo, "hqw" instead of "how"
• Should sequence 4 have the title for PFMEA?
• Should point 1 of sequence 4 reference the DFMEA as an input?
• Would it be worth mentioning MSA, capacity studies and run @ rates in the Control Plan or Prototype section?
• At what point is documentation sent to the customer to approval?
• Does "Mass Production" mean approved by the customer?
• In the check section it says that performance will be reviewed. How? When?
• I really like the focus on reducing process variation in the act section. And how will process variation be reduced? By what methods?
• Which FMEA rulebook are you using? I know JLR's FMEA scoring doesn't (or didn't when we last did a project with them) correlate to the AIAG's. Why is 5 the crossover?
• Do the phrases "moderate/high risk" and "very high risk" correlate with the FMEA severity scoring? If so, why use both?

I hope this helps somewhat. I have to repeat that responsibility needs to be defined for each of the sequences in the document, otherwise why have that section?

 

[Sambasi]

Thank you for your feedback. It is very encouraging. I will incorporate your comments in the SOP appropriately.
Will you suggest some "Performance Indicator" for the process of identifying special characteristics?
Thanks again.

 

[Tagin]

Will you suggest some "Performance Indicator" for the process of identifying special characteristics?

Typically, I think you would be monitoring/measuring things like: customer complaints/SCARs, nonconformances, %defects, etc. Another way to think about it is: what would cause you to go to the ACT stage? what do you CHECK that causes you ACT?

 

[Sambasi]

Thank you. I am getting some ideas on the basis of your feedback . Thanks again

 

[malasuerte]

I think your "guidelines" of how to select special char is wayyy to broad and vague. I don't know how many parameters you have for this product - but even a slightly complex product could have lots.

Words that cause vagueness:
"Significantly" - what does this mean. Recommend you quantify/qualify this statement
"high impact" - what does this mean. A customer's dissatisfaction will not be equal to yours. You should have a measure.
"moderate/high risk" - ??? risk of what? You need to define
FMEA 5-8 - I don't know your scale, but going down to a 5 - I may reconsider

And since this section is integral, I would redo the section, and move it to the first part of your SOP. If I am going to start a process, I would want to understand my requirements/guidelines/success criteria first. This is just me and the way I write and think....


One general thing - this document has a few items....is this a SOP of how to 'identify SC', as in what are the SC? or is this a document about all to manage SC? Your document seems to imply the first, but is written like the latter.

• So maybe decide if you need 2 SOPs - 1 for how to determine the SC and 1 for how to manage SC. Because they are different things.

 

[Sambasi]

Thank you for your review. I will incorporate these appropriately in the procedure.

 

[Pillo]

Hello everyone.
I have a question regarding special characteristics (SC) and I am asking for your help to clarify it.
The question is the following:
Should the special characteristics be identified at the origin or at the control point?
For example, my customer requests as SC the volume of solder paste, which is controlled by an SPC software that is located in the station called SPI. Recently, my team has requested to identify the station where the solder paste volume is originated (Dek station, where the solder paste is printed).
Which station should I identify in this case?

 

[Sebastian]

Control plan comes under PFMEA.
Special characteristic has to be identified in PFMEA first, and then marked in control plan.

Starting point is part drawing.
We can have there product characteristics marked as special one.
PFMEA team has no other choice as identify them as special characteristics in PFMEA too.
Then it has to be copied to control plan.

PFMEA team has authority to identify process characteristics impacting special product characteristic as special one too.
Then it has to be copied to control plan too.

Sometimes part drawing has process characteristics marked as special one.
So PFMEA team has to treat them in a same manner as special product characteristics.

Volume of solder paste is a process characteristic.
There have to be special product characteristic affected by volume of solder paste.
Is it solder paste volume identified on drawing as special characteristic or how did your customer come to requesting you marking it as SC?
In case it was not marked on drawing, it is your authority to decide what deserves SC or what not.
Then, as usual "we are partners, let's discuss it" or "I am your customer, mark it".

I understand, that volume is controlled on SPI station, but does the performance of Dek station affects performance of SPI station too?
You know the answer and if your PFMEA shows relation between these two stations, so it has to be marked on both.

 

[MValdes]

Agree with your comments Sebastian.