When Customer Becomes Our Subcontractor

[qsmso]

When customer becomes our subcontractor !

Case I.
What if 1ST tier supplier, let say company X, for OEM, let’s say company Y, have the situation like this.
Casting at the company X
Heat treat at the company X
CNC at the customer, company Y
Then come back for painting at company X.
Packing at the company X and delivery to company Y as finished product.
Question 1: For QS-9000, what should be the situation for APQP document such as FMEA, Control Plan, and Process Flow Diagram?
Question 2: When the machined parts come back to Company X, do they need some receiving inspection? What about corrective action request?

Case II.
My Company “X” is the second tier for another company, let’s say company A. They assembly product and sell to OEM
The process is
Casting at the company X
Heat treat at the company X
CNC at the company B. < Company X send casted parts to have machine process there)
Then, parts come back for packing and delivery to company A.
Question 1: Is company B is my subcontractor?
Question 2: How gonna we manage this situation to comply with QS-9000 requirement ie. Receiving inspection, PPAP, Subcontractor evaluation, etc. ?

It sounds weird, but It’s actually happen. We need to solve before certificate audit.

 

[JRKH]

qsmso,

I am not sure that I fully understand your question but I will try an answer.

On Case one: Are you responsible for the finished product once it is delivered. If so then I would treat "company Y" as a vendor and perform whatever checks, audits etc that I would do with any other vendor.

Case two: Absolutely. Company "B" is your sub-contractor.

Perhaps others can elaborate on this.

James

 

[M Greenaway]

Case 1

You buy raw material and exercise all your controls over this purchase. You process the raw material and exercise all your controls over these activities. You deliver an end product, etc, etc.

When the machined part comes back if you have to purchase the item then exercise your purchasing controls again, but if not then exercise your controls for customer supplied property. Again when you process and deliver this product exercise your controls. Only the customer can tell you if PPAP is required, I would imagine so.

Case 2

Bit more tricky. Is company B your subcontractor ? Only you know this and how the contract agreement stands between all these XYZ companies. If you hold the contract to machine the pieces but you send them to be done at an outside vendor then it is sub-contracted. If however you are contracted for the casting, and then any subsequent post-machining operations then it is not your sub-contract.

This then goes back to the question is it purchased product, or is it customer supplied product. Controls exercised will depend on this however in either case you have a responsibility to not knowingly supply defective products.

Hope this helps.

 

[qsmso]

Thank you for your comment,
It helps a lot.
To clarify,
Case II,
The company X is our subcontractor. But they are our brother company also. Now, they don't have any quality system in place.So, it quite difficult to control them as subcontractor.

QSMSO

 

[M Greenaway]

I have also worked at organisations that use sister companies as suppliers. It is a very difficult arrangement sometimes, and is not the same as a pure independant supplier relationship in practice, however they should be controlled and monitored as any other supplier (even if you are really stuck with them).