TS 16949 Clause 5.5.2.1 Customer Representative - What do you do to comply?

[RG Ohidy]

5.5.2.1 Customer Representative

I have put off addressing this requirment in my procedures, as I am not sure of the best approach and I want to get something from it. I am now forced to address it as I am almost done with upgrading my system. I would like to know what some of you folks are doing to address this issue, so that I have a better idea on how best to implement it.
Any comments or opinions offered are greatly appreciated.
Rich

 

[Bill Ryan - 2007]

Rich - Welcome to the Cove!

Rather than start this all up again, let me suggest you perform a search using "Customer representative". There are 57 matches to other threads, all discussing (some at length) your question. You can join in one of those if one seems to tickle your fancy.

Good luck and happy reading!!!

Bill

 

[Manoj Mathur]

I shall share you with my doing for this clause.

We Hindalco Industries ltd. has set up our Regional offices in various parts of Country. and Officer of that perticular region is Customer Rep. of that perticular region. I shall give for illustration. Maruti Suzuki is situated in Northen part in India . Very near to Delhi. So officer of Delhi Marketing office who is directly dealing with Maruti Suzuki is one Customer Rep. of Hindalco. Another one, Officer posted at Chennai Marketing office where Mitsubishi Motor is situated is Customer Rep. for Hindalco.

Does it look Sound?

 

[RG Ohidy]

Bill,
I did perform a search before I posted and could not find much (from reading the posts, I have learned that "a search is a terrible thing to waste"!). All I found was one thread, under quality manual, there was really nothing here. I did see where Allie posted a question wanting to know if it was advisable for the same person to be both the Management Rep and the Customer Rep. There was no reply to here post, but I would ask the same question now.
Should I have found more threads in my search, did I perform the search incorrectly?

Thanks Rich

 

[RG Ohidy]

Manoj,
I find your approach to be interesting, as our business structure is similar to yours. How do you communicate between the officers at your regional offices and your manufacturing facility to make sure that the customers requirments are being addressed? I would assume that the customer representivies function would be to oversee and check on the actitivies taking place to ensure that the customers requirments are being addressed. How can that be done if the customer representative is at a different location?
Rich

 

[Sam]

We assign that responsibility to Marketing/Sales and Product Development.
During the RFQ phase Marketing maintains contact with the customer to assure various customer requirements are understood and documented. This infromation is transmiteed through weekly meeting and e-mail. After contract award becomes the only customer rep.

 

[Bill Ryan - 2007]

Rich

Sorry, I didn't read your original post clearly enough.

Here is how we are set up.

There is a senior staffer designated as Management Rep. It is his responsibility (as well as, our QM) to keep Senior Management aware of, and in support of, customer requirements. He happens to head the Engineering Dept. We have designated "Launch Managers" (Sr. Engineers) reporting to him. Among the Launch Mgr's. responsibilities is defining the customers' expectations/needs and parlaying those into the ways we are going to meet them. He has a "team" to help him realize this. The production departments are always part of the team.

We also have Field Representatives we hire to go into the customers on a regular basis and they provide us with the day to day stuff to keep us up with the "undefined" or changing expectations. Typically we hire an "early out" employee (of the customer) that wishes to work a few hours a month (they know the "ins and outs" of the customer).

This doesn't absolve us from sending one of our own employees in occasionally and I, in particular, get to each customer on a "good will" visit (hopefully) at least twice a year.

Does this help (or even make sense)?

Bill

 

[Manoj Mathur]

Mr. Ohidy,

Each Customer Rep. is linked with Manufacturing Plant with various means of communication such as Internet and Intranet.we at plant are also connected with our respective customer rep. with specially designed IT System of Our customers. Hence communication is no problem and communicating Customer Requirements to Manufacturing plant through Cusomer Rep. is being fullfilled very effectively. As a matter of fact, the Close Proximity of each Customer Rep. to Customer is helping us in many ways.

 

[TPM Slave]

We have exactly the same system Manoj, our "sales" account managers teams are designated with a certain number of customers of which they are in constant communication with, visits to far off countries to visit our customers are not rare and not cheap, but in the automotive business, it has to be done!.

Question, does anyone know how to get hold of Fords customer specific requirements, I cant get through their website password which is supposed to hold the information?

Please Help!!!

 

[lday38]

customer represntative -more than one person

I was told by a consultant that the customer representative didn't have to be one person. Therefore my policy states the following:
5.5.2.1 Customer Representative
The Plant Manager has designated personnel with responsibilities to ensure customer requirements are addressed. See paragraph 5.5.1
The entire paragrpah 5.5.1- actually I wasnt for the idea because it like saying its everybodys responsibility but nobodys. I am the QM and MR.
5. 5.1 Responsibility and Authority
ITW Nutmeg is a division of ITW Shakeproof. The General Manager of ITW Shakeproof is responsible for driving ITW Nutmeg’s business according to corporate strategy , policies and guidelines. The General Manager holds profit & loss accountability and is responsible for resource planning, allocation and control within the company.

The General Manager has given the Plant Manager executive responsibility and authority on site for formulating the quality policy, managing and directing the staff in all business and customer affairs.

The Plant Manager ensures that responsibilities and authorities are defined and communicated within ITW Nutmeg. Each organizational function and its interrelationship with other functions are clearly defined to facilitate effective quality management.
See Supporting Documentation: Organizational Chart -Appendix A
NOP 5.5 - Management Responsibilities
NOP 4.1 Sequence and interaction of Processes


5.5.1.1 Responsibility and Authority for Quality
Management Team
The Plant Manager leads the team consisting of the Engineering Manager, Production Manager, Shipping Manager and Quality Manager.
The Management Team holds routine meetings to review and communicate on operation matters. Formal meetings are held to review the company objectives and the quality management system.

Production Manager
The Production Manager has the responsibility and authority to ensure process and product quality. The Production Manager initiates corrective action on the product and process, which do not conform to customer requirements.



Quality Manager
The Quality Manager has the responsibility and authority for verifying the effectiveness of corrective and preventive actions, communicating customer concerns to all pertinent functions and the planning and scheduling of internal audits of the QMS.

Engineering Manager
The Engineering Manager has the responsibility and authority to ensure process changes do not compromise product quality and implement methods of improvement.

Production Team
The production team (toolmakers and operators) have the responsibility and the authority to stop production, isolate and identify defective work and take corrective action appropriate to their job responsibilities.

Shift Leader
Each shift has a leader who is responsible for production, quality, and employee supervision. The shift leader has the responsibility and authority to take action: including stopping production or making limited process changes to bring the material back to the specification center. If the process cannot be returned to control, within a specified time, the Production Manager is contacted for instruction or production is stopped. The shift leader also bears the responsibility of identifying and recording any problems encountered during the manufacture of the product process or in relation to the quality system.

All Employees
Inherent in every employee’s job function is the responsibility to perform work in accordance with applicable procedures, work instructions, and control plans and to comply with the intent of the quality policy. Employees may suggest solution to problems that arise, in areas of process, product or the quality management system that are in their direct area of responsibility by recommending procedural changes.

Feedback would be greatly appreciated.