Re: The customer does not go by their own Supplier Quality Manual???
We recently were audited by a customer, a large well known customer. During the audit I requested to know where the requirement was for an item to clarify what they expected to see. The answer was "we do not audit to the manual, we audit to the checklist".
The "requirements" on the checklist are not in the Supplier Quality Manual, and the opinions that were added are not there either. In addition, we have not received the audit report back from them, and it has been a month. Now they are concerned that we are not taking them seriously.
I don't know if it can help You but You are not the only one.
When a "well known customer" comes to audit, it may happen thay are not looking for seeing if Your organization/system works "well" but how many differences there are between Your system and their "perfect" one by checklist. You can receive the checklist before the audit but without any "customer trainer" You can not understand most of the items.
Some customers pretend to have a copy of their quality/production/etc system in your plant for the parts You are producing for them. everything that is not a copy of their system is a "NC" or a remark that you must solve introducing their methodology/phylosophy
when it happened to me I tried to find someone to speak with inside customer organization. When I found out, I used him as consultan in order to understand the "real" meaning of the checklist and I found out some interesting points.
Look at the findings, try to sketch a proposal, send Your comments and proposal to Your top management and wait for Your top management answer. If it takes time tell Your customer Your organisation is thinking about their proposals for improvement very carefully because they (the proposal) are so "wise"

sarcasm: ?)
At the end it is Your top managent that takes the decision. If They wont the business You must bear all the conseguences

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imho aswer to the customer and look likes you appreciate their audit or your organization will charge You for all the problems/delays etc
