Understanding The ISO/TS 16949:2002 Standard 

7.4.2 Purchasing Information  

You shall describe the product to be purchased and include where appropriate requirements for:  

a)    approval of product, procedures, processes and equipment  

b)    qualification of personnel 

c)    quality management system  

You shall ensure the adequacy of specified purchase requirements before communicating them to the supplier 

Key Explanation Points and Tips: 

Þ      Your purchase documents (purchase order, contract, blanket order, your organization’s supplier quality manual, etc.) must specify your requirements for the purchased product; the suppliers QMS and any other initial or on-going controls you deem necessary for ensuring consistent supplier performance.  

Þ      You must define how you ensure the adequacy of these documents before you communicate them to your supplier. A review of adequacy of purchasing documents may include their completeness, accuracy, correctness, quantity, timing, cost, approval, etc., by one or more functions; computerized controls, etc. 

Þ      In larger organizations, this may be a separate process on-site or off-site. In either case, it must be identified and controlled as per clause 4.1 along with 7.4.2. 

Þ      While clause 7.4.2 does not specify keeping of records, you must show evidence of carrying out (issue purchase documents) and review of these documents. (see clause 7.1d and 4.2.4 first sentence). 

7.4.3 Verification of Purchased Product 

You shall: 

Establish and implement inspection or other activities necessary to ensure that purchased product meets specified purchase requirements 

For any verification at supplier premises (by your organization or customer), state in the purchasing information:

Þ      Your intended verification arrangements   

Þ      and method of product release 

7.4.3.1 Incoming product quality 

Have a process to verify the quality of purchased product. Your process shall use one or more of following :  

Þ      Receipt & evaluation of statistical data provided by the supplier 

Þ      Receiving inspection and/or testing - e., sampling based on performance 

Þ      2^nd or 3^rd party audits of supplier sites when combined with records of acceptable delivered quality performance  

Þ      Part evaluation by a designated laboratory 

Þ      Any other method agreed to by your customer 

Key Explanation Points and Tips: 

Þ      Use the APQP process to evaluate the risks and controls needed for products or product groups. Include or refer to these controls for incoming product in your Control Plans. Review specific requirements for incoming product quality at OEM customer or IATF websites. 

Þ      The standard provides several options for verifying incoming product quality. You can use different combinations for different products and suppliers depending on their ongoing performance. In any case these must be included or referenced in your Control Plans. 

Þ      Your incoming inspection process must define and document the criteria for doing this and what records you keep to show effective control of purchased product quality and supplier quality perfromance.  

Þ      Statistical data must relate to product characteristics or process parameters from the production run from which the product came from. It should include any special and regulatory characteristics (for product or process) where designated by the customer or your own organization. 

Þ      You must define and document the acceptance criteria for all sampling plans. Check if any of your customers require approval of your sampling plans.  

Þ      Third party assessments must be done by an accredited registrar. Parties conducting second party assessments may need to be approved by your customer.  

Þ      Designated laboratories must be ISO/IEC 17025 accredited or have evidence from your customer, that they are acceptable for carrying out part evaluations. 

7.4.3.2 Supplier Monitoring 

You shall monitor your suppliers performance through the following indicators: 

Þ      Delivered product quality 

Þ      Customer disruptions including field returns 

Þ      Delivery schedule performance (including incidents of premium freight) 

Þ      Special status customer notifications for quality or delivery issues 

Promote suppliers to monitor the performance of their manufacturing processes 

Key Explanation Points and Tips: 

Þ      On top of the initial evaluation and approval of suppliers, you are required to carry out ongoing monitoring of their performance. 

Þ      Use supplier monitoring indicators to evaluate the consistency, capability and reliability of their performance for quality, delivery, support, etc. Various tools are available to do this. 

Þ      On-time delivery is very important and disruptions (due to waiting for materials) at your customers or even your own facility must be avoided. Review specific requirements for on time delivery and scheduling at OEM customer or IATF websites. 

Þ      You must track and evaluate all occurrences of premium freight on incoming deliveries, whether caused by you or your supplier. You must take corrective action where there a significant premium freight problem. 

Þ      If you have the misfortune to be put on hold, special alert or notification status by any of your OEM customers, the process for getting out of it can be very time-consuming and costly. Therefore, besides controlling your own product and delivery performance (see clause 8.2.1.1), make sure that you are on top of your supplier’s product quality and delivery using effective evaluation and monitoring controls as well as an effective problem resolution process when problems do arise.   

Þ      You must encourage your suppliers to monitor their own manufacturing performance. Motivate them to use lean manufacturing tools such as – ANDON procedures; direct run first time quality results; lead time reduction; level scheduling; number of error-proofing opportunities implemented; planned maintenance; standardized work; workplace organization and visual controls deployed.