Supplier drawings used for purchase orders

[pbojsen]

Hi all,

How are you controlling drawings given to you by a supplier? The specific scenario is that we have a supplier who has to purchase a component, and they've given us the drawing from a third supplier that manufactures the component.

Our engineers want to put this drawing into our system without giving it a document/drawing number according to our system, or putting the drawing in our title block, etc.

Drawings are under document control. Documents of external origin are generally our standards documents. We are certified to ISO 13485 and 9001.

What is your practice when it comes to this?

 

[GStough]

In a previous life, the Doc Control Clerk would assign them a number in our system (documents of external origin had a numbering format of their own in our system), using the DCR process for new documents. She maintained them in a file cabinet. Any time the supplier revised the document, they sent her the latest revision of it and she processed it per our procedure for control of documents of external origin.

 

[Ninja]

Same here...Customer supplied drawing controlled as external document.

If the customer sends a revised drawing, how will you know the correct one is being used?
It has to be part of your document control system.

 

[pbojsen]

How do you ensure that the supplier sends you any drawing revisions?

Thanks

 

[Ninja]

Drawing number and revision level stated on the purchase order.

 

[GStough]

As part of your document review process, whether it's annually, every 2-3 years, etc., just include documents of external origin in this process so that someone within your company reviews them on a regular basis. That person will need to contact the supplier to see if the document has undergone any revisions since the most recent version that your company has. This creates a channel of communication so that it flows both ways, from you the customer to the supplier (when you inquire of the supplier whether any changes have been made since the last time), and from the supplier to you the customer (when they revise a document and send it to you).

 

[Eredhel]

We keep a Customer/Supplier Drawing folder, with limited access, on our server. Files are saved by their drawing number and revision letter. When a new one is added to the folder a purge can happen then. Job Travelers include drawing numbers with their require revision from customer POs. We also keep archives.

The real reason I'm replying is just to mention that eventually more and more government work is leaning toward destruction of prints with archiving loop holes. I'm going through the FISMA stuff with NIST publications now. So far it's all federal agency requirements but eventually they'll flow some requirements down to contractors as well.