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Forgoing incoming inspection, shipped directly to customer.....ISO9001

dkmc

Diamond
I've been debating asking for opinions on this, on this forum for several months. I guess I'm finally in the mood to put it out there.

Major manufacturer of precision assemblies. The job was already late when I inherited it, I'm not sure what that has to do with the "problem" that came up. I didn't make the job late. Of course I upped the pace to attempt to deliver faster, and I did beat my quoted delivery time by a couple days at least.

So I delivered the part. Not a small part, OAL aprox 60". Tapped holes and longitudinal slot features, etc. Also not a high precision part, tightest dimension was +/-.002. I wait a couple days, and make a follow up call. I ask my contact there "how things looked" and "just checking if it made it thru inspection". Yes, I was 99% confident it would make it thru inspection.

My contact says, in a nonchalant tone, words to effect: "Oh, yea, I guess they slipped it around inspection, and shipped it right out, the customer's been waiting for it awhile. But if I hear of any problems, I'll let you know".....

So.......I'm like......What? Thought for a second he was just joking. Nope, serious. I didn't know what to think. I just said OK and got off the phone.
But then I got a bit confused on what to think. I was surprised after it sunk in a bit. This is an ISO 9001-9002 company. I'm not very familiar with all the aspects of that certification, but isn't something like this a big problem with maintaining the certification? I assume there are strict rules and procedures related to incoming inspection of outsourced components?
It just felt super unprofessional to me. And I'm a 1 man shop, I don't have another person inspecting my work before it leaves my shop. Even more important (in my mind) to do incoming inspection on my work. It probably would have taken them maybe 15-20 minutes to inspect this part, and the drawing had noted inspection points listed on it.

Not sure what to think. Why would they take a chance and cut corners like that. Unprofessional. I'm disappointed. I haven't done anymore work for them since.

So I guess I'm looking for "what would you do" and "what do you think" about this event?
Would you shrug it off and keep doing work for this company?
 
The ISO ...well things like that are sales tools and when sales gets hold of quality you know where it goes.
Seen it many times, they are heavily reliant on other people, like people doing the extra mile to make cream for them and keep them out of the Poo.

Inspect it well, make it well and price your goods well is all i can say and i think they will be a repeat customer....because they can't do it themselves.
Also on edit beware the 30 days / 60 days payment.....sometimes they get paid up front and use the late payment to you terms.

It may turn back to where it was before any standards, although you need some sort of quality proceedure, where a shop guaranteed their work without any token moniker....
 
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Would you shrug it off and keep doing work for this company?

As long as they're giving you P/O's and paying, YES, KEEP WORKING FOR THEM.
As far as the skipping inspection goes, I really, REALLY, wouldn't worry. If it was bad, you'd have known it. You do your part, let the others worry about theirs.
 
A few jobs ago I worked at a very large corp that was ISO and AS9100 certified (?). Their "incoming inspection" was just looking at the supplied paperwork and checking the boxes. :rolleyes5:

I remember doing some re-work on a batch of parts that came from a local vendor, had to add/enlarge a hole or something simple like that. I started checking them to determine the best way to hold them for the re-work op and they were all over the place! Like some dim's out a good .01". Ironically, it was a part that we recently had taken in-house and they held my ass to every thing (I did make them to print, but it was a bit of a PITA because of the shape/from)! I went to the quality lead for the department they were assembled in. He told me "eh, they'll be ok". :nutter:
 
ISO has nothing to do with specific procedures.
That is made up by the company.
As long as they follow the procedures that they have written and some basic processes, they are ISO.

I would still work for them as long as they pay you.
Who cares what they do on their end.
 
All they had to have to stay in the lines was a procedure to expedite "receiving inspection" and deliver straight to the customer.

All ISO is is having a procedure to do something and following that procedure. Doesn't matter what meat is in the procedure, just so long as it's followed. That and a good lunch at a nice restaurant will get you certified every time.

But they're ISO, not you. So I wouldn't lose a minute of sleep over it.
 
I've had responsibility for incoming inspection as QC manager at several companes. As time passes you get to know the reliable suppliers from the unreliable ones and inspect accordingly.

I always found that the unreliable suppliers were invariably the cheapest ones but the price of incoming inspection for poor suppliers was never taken into account and added on to the price.

Buying cheap can be expensive!
 
Up until last year I did a fair bit of medical parts that go into oncology machines, I was a subcontractor so the outfit I made the parts for was required to qc 50% of my parts unless they found a flaw then 75%. Over the years there have been a couple of problems and the dog and I would hop on the bike so we could see what and how they were checking ( they were only about 20 miles away). Each time we found they came up with some convoluted way of checking from somewhere not dimentioned on the drawing, we did finally agree that we would check the parts using the numbers on the drawings, shortly after I heard from a friend working there that they had quit checking my parts completly and just passed them. That went on for the last couple of years, I would rather had them check some here and there, I don't often screw up but when I do it makes up for the times I didn't.
 
Most ISO 9000+ shop will not have any receiving inspection. This and it's high cost is long since gone.
That is kind of the point of standard and why no willy nilly place can be an approved vendor.
Bob
 
All they had to have to stay in the lines was a procedure to expedite "receiving inspection" and deliver straight to the customer.

All ISO is is having a procedure to do something and following that procedure. Doesn't matter what meat is in the procedure, just so long as it's followed. That and a good lunch at a nice restaurant will get you certified every time.

But they're ISO, not you. So I wouldn't lose a minute of sleep over it.


100% this. Procedure could say "flip a coin" and it is within the guidelines.
 








 
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