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Title: Quality
Audits for Improved Performance
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You can order this book from internal-auditor.com at: http://www.internal-auditor.com/books.htm |
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This Month's Feature ArticleAuditing Customer RequirementsEvery organization, whether automotive or not has customer-specific requirements. They may not be spelled out as clearly as Section II of QS 9000, or available on websites, like in ISO/TS 16949, but they are there. Even in the cases of QS and TS, not all customer-specific requirements are listed. This raises three questions:
This month we will examine how organizations, and internal auditors determine what customer requirements they have, and what they need to do to successfully audit them. In order to audit customer requirements, you must first understand where the requirements come from, and how the organization determines them. There are also two types, or groups of requirements, and each have different audit characteristics and different sets of evidence. Internal auditors must know the difference and be aware of what evidence would support with group. When looking at the requirements for the quality objectives, we notice they are broken into two groups. One group deals with the global objectives that affect all products and services and one group that are specific to a particular job or product. Customer requirements are similar, in that they also are composed of two groups. You have customer requirements that apply to each job individually, and requirements that apply to all jobs equally. Each group has different audit requirements and needs to be audited independently. Let's look at each group and determine the best way to audit customer requirements. Global Requirements Section II of QS-9000 is an example of these requirements. Too many times we think only about the global requirements. This is in part due to the fact that they are readily available (at least for QS and TS companies). Also, customers and your registrar also place a large amount of emphasis on them. Global requirements tend to be somewhat stable with little relative change. This can cause us problems if we do not keep on track of them. Global requirements are determined during initial sales planning. In determining global requirements, the organization must first understand what the requirements are and where they will be found. This is the job of top management, or the management team. Not only do they need to know what the requirements are, they also have to know where to find them. Organizations must be careful here. It is far too easy to point to the IAOB website, or Section II of QS-9000 and say you have all of the customer specific requirements. Although those places list customer specific stuff, they don't include all customers, nor all requirements. Other sources of global customer requirements include communication from the customer. This may be in the form of newsletters or bulletins, communiqués, letters or email alerts. Once global requirements are determined, they must be translated into information that the organization can use. Any requirement relating to purchasing must be available there. Likewise, production, quality, even maintenance needs to know the requirements that affect their processes. The method used by the organization to disseminate is up to the organization, but it must be effective. In auditing global requirements, it is imperative for the internal auditor to first look at how the requirements are determined. Ask multiple key players to determine if they give the same basic answers. Once you have determined that they know how to obtain customer requirements, then look at how those requirements are communicated throughout the organization. Take one of the requirements, and determine who needs to know it, and then find out if they are aware of the requirement. The last step is to look at the method of updating the requirements. Customers are not real good at communicating any changes to global requirements. It is up to the organization to keep track of any updated, or new requirements. The organization should have some method to periodically check with the customer on the changes in requirements. Specific Requirements Specific customer requirements are more covert. They lurk about and may be harder to spot. When it comes to customer requirements, we tend to only consider the global requirements, and forget that the customer may have requirements specific to a particular product, process or service. These requirements are fluid and change from job to job. Specific customer requirements include product descriptions, material content/specifications, vendor selection, shipping, price and other data specific to the product being purchased. They are generally communicated to the organization through the request for quote (RFQ) process. Customers may provide this information via data or spec sheets and prints. Typically specific customer requirements will be taken from these sources during the quality planning and the contract review processes. They should be discussed in both, and requirements and information will be communicated to the rest of the organization by way of normal production, shipping and billing paperwork and information. When auditing specific customer requirements, the auditor needs to know how the organization determines the requirements and how the organization uses this information. Evidence will be found in contract review and quality planning records. It is possible to identify some of the customer requirements and follow the production flow to determine if those requirements are being met throughout the flow. Also look for how amendments are made to the requirements. How are they identified, communicated and verified throughout the process. There should be clear evidence of proper handling of changes within the records and paper trail. One last thing of importance. Determining and fulfilling customer requirements may be a process in itself, or it may be spread out over many processes, as sup-processes. When auditing by the process, be aware of how this process interacts with other processes. A good place to start here is the Quality Manual. The Quality Manual is required to have a description of the interaction of processes. This interaction should be able to be verified in the audit process. Summary: It is the organization's responsibility to know and understand customer requirements regardless of whether they are global or specific. Internal auditors need to know what things to look for to ensure the organization is meeting this requirement. Te better job we do, the better the organization will handle their customer requirements and the more effective the QMS. As always...Good Auditing! |
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Question and Answers: Q – Our Management Representative was recently replaced. Do we have to update every document that has the old Management Representative signature? A – The short answer is no. At the time the document was review and approved, the signature of the Management Representative was current. Changing the Management Representative does not invalidate the old document. If it is revised, or updated, or any new documents should have the new Management Representative's signature. All of this is provided your own documentation doesn't require new publication. Check your procedures to find out. |
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Observations from the Field When mapping out your processes, make sure you involve personnel involved in that process. You will find the processes will be better explained and the map will be much more accurate. It also encourages buy-in for the entire QMS process. Also, include personnel whose processes either affect, or are affected by the process being mapped. This will give a much better picture of all of the processes that make up your QMS. A lot of holes can be uncovered and closed using these methods. |
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Element Understanding: ISO-9001:2000 Clause 5.2 Customer focus "Top management shall ensure that customer requirements are determined and met with the aim of enhancing customer satisfaction" What does the word "aim" mean? It means goal, or intent. How can you meet customer requirements with the aim of enhancing customer satisfaction? A recent seminar indicated that lunch was provided for the participants. When lunchtime came around, they served tuna salad wraps with room temperature lemonade. Nothing else. A different seminar served lemon chicken or broiled fish with all the trimmings. Both met the requirements for providing lunch, but only one had the goal of enhancing customer satisfaction. In manufacturing, aim might be indicated by levels of communication, extra handling and packaging consideration, timing and quality issues or anything else that your customer would see as positive above and beyond the contract. |
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Monthly Scenario Explained: June 2002's question On-The-Job (OJT) training is the primary source of training personnel. While auditing 6.2.2, you notice there are no records for maintained for OJT. The HR director, who oversees training, states the management team decided that since OJT is the responsibility of the departments and since no one can move from trainee to trained without being tested by their supervisor, records are a waste of resources. Since the standard only requires "appropriate" records, they determine that OJT records are not "appropriate". There is no procedure for this activity. The
answer: First of all, there is no required procedure for training, unless the organization is registered to ISO/TS 16949. So, that leaves the question of whether the organization is maintaining "appropriate" records. In smaller organizations, with little turnover, OJT records might not be necessary. Just about everyone will know when someone is satisfactorily trained on a piece of equipment, or a particular job. However, that might not be good enough. What about if the person is moved to another job for a while and brought back? What if the job only runs periodically? What if the supervisor leaves? Who determines who is capable on what job? I would expect to see some record indicating who is competent on what job. If this is the case, separate records for OJT might not be necessary. Absolutely no records of competence would not be considered "appropriate". Based on just the information here, I am hesitant to call this conforming. It is close enough to a nonconformance that I think it needs to be addressed. |
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The Back Page:
Spring This past month, we witnessed the coming of spring. Spring in Michigan is an amazing time of change. As winter gives way to summer, spring is a time of slowly increasing temperatures punctuated by brief moments of cold. Snow, rain, hail, sleet and sunshine are all expected during early spring. Opening day of professional baseball is often characterized by extremes. One year it might be sunny and hot, the next year there might be several inches of snow. All of this means that despite the extreme variation, we know the norm will continue to increase as we move from spring towards summer. Sometimes it seems like the quality field is like that. We have a desired direction, and we work hard to keep us moving forward. But like the weather in Michigan, there seems to be extreme variation on our route. Some of the variation is special cause and some common cause. Our job is to identify the sources of variation and help eliminate or control those sources. We might not be able to do much about the variation in Michigan weather, other than to prepare for it, but we can do a lot about controlling variation in our QMS. We must continually strive to keep the trend line moving in a positive direction. Dave ...Good auditing!
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Because this site uses information from many different sources, it must be pointed out that any advice, tips, information, etc., provided should be regarded as opinion and not fact! What works well for one company may be a disaster for another. Also, what one registrar, or auditor may allow, another may not. As always, reflect on what you read, see if it fits into your own quality system, and if it conflicts with your auditor...you've got to make a decision |
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