Telephonic supplier audits!

[roneljdsilva]

Hey Guys.. and Marc ,
Firstly I'd like to show my gratitude for all that the cove has helped me with.Thanks all of you! You guys are awesome... and i genuinely mean it.
I've recently graduated and had trained in the QMS for three months in a startup machine shop/fabrication facility complying to ISO ( We are planning on obtaining API Q1 (we have a few API monograms)) after which my Quality Manager resigned and I was assigned a lot of his duties. I have a lot on my plate and I am understanding bits of the standard one piece at a time and it's going great! This is also a reason you'll are going to be seeing a lot of my posts in coming times
Now regarding supplier audits.. I work in Kuwait and most of my supplies, especially critical, come from Dubai.. So as per API Q1, do I really need to conduct a supplier audit for supplier qualification? If yes, can it be telephonic?
I do not have much experience and have no info backing me up, everything from here on now is just fresh food on my plate and boy, am I hungry! HELP!

 

[lk2012]

hello,
well done on your new role.
Nothing replaces seeing the supplier's site for yourself and making your own judgement.
I'd strongly recommend doing the supplier audits, preferably as a visit to their site at least for their first time you're taking them on. After that, you could either ask them to provide a self-assessment (you may use tools like the MMOG/LE for example) or perhaps run a spot check on a few things in a teleconference.
If there's something not quite right, another visit may be on the cards.
Hope this helps

 

[roneljdsilva]

It does help,
I understand the need to have an on-site visit and will push my management to fly my team there but we have a lot of ground to cover and since we are a start-up I just want to know if it is a mandatory requirement.. I think it is. Or wait let me pull this one out..
I quote API Q1 Clause 5.6.1.2
b) assessment of the supplier to ensure its capability to meet the organization's purchasing requirements by:
i) performing an on-site evaluation of relevant activities, or
ii) performing first article inspection to ensure conformance to stated requirements, or
iii) identifying how the supplied product conforms to stated requirements when limited by proprietary, legal, and/or contractual arrangements.

* Now the fact that they connected these three point with "or" confuses me on whether an on-site audit is mandatory. Please advice.

 

[Jen Kirley]

Welcome to the Cove!

Let us consider risk. You describe these parts as critical. Can you discern the supplier's reputation for performance and customer service in another way? If the supplied parts are not good, would you be able to notice right away or would product failure only be apparent once it gets to the customer?

If the cost of getting it wrong is high, a visit to their site could be a good investment. Being ISO 9001 registered is supposed to be enough, but in my experience it is not always. You have the prerogative to decide.

Since you are intent on maintaining conformance with the standard, it is not too soon to begin thinking in terms of risk because the 2015 revision of ISO 9001 will be centralized on managing risk. Supplier control is an excellent place to begin applying the critical thinking principles and recording the basis of your decision for the sake of future reconsideration and reporting to management as needed.

Once having established a good relationship with suppliers and gaining confidence that the parts are good, it is possible to evaluate continued supplier performance via their supplied products and/or services alone.

I hope this helps!

 

[roneljdsilva]

I just quoted a section of the API Q1 manual regarding this. What do you make of it? Again, I'm stating I understand a field visit is crucial but as of now I just want to know if it is madatory. We have been using the suppliers for a year now and nothing has come up.. plus in the middle east, I must say the supplier aren't overly impressive with their systems.

 

[Jen Kirley]

I just quoted a section of the API Q1 manual regarding this. What do you make of it? Again, I'm stating I understand a field visit is crucial but as of now I just want to know if it is madatory. We have been using the suppliers for a year now and nothing has come up.. plus in the middle east, I must say the supplier aren't overly impressive with their systems.

API Q1 provides a range of choices of allowable means for supplier evaluation, consider the word "or" following lines i) and ii). The question thereafter becomes one of effectiveness, which your site is expected to periodically evaluate and respond to based on data analysis. Since you have described your own sense of the need to in-person visit as crucial as a business case, it appears your decision is made and the intent of API Q1 is satisfied. As time progresses you may decide, based on the parts' condition when you receive them and the supplier's otherwise performance (on time delivery, responsiveness to queries etc.) you may decide to apply choices ii) or iii) unless something happens to change your mind.

 

[roneljdsilva]

Thanks so much Jennifer! I think I got it