7.4 Purchasing
Purchasing Process
Your company must ensure anything you buy is what you expected it to be, since it may be a component of something you then sell on to a customer or in some way may affect product / service quality. You should choose your suppliers based upon their ability to supply you and your criteria for selection, and evaluation determined you should keep records of such.
This is becoming looser as a lot of companies may buy branded goods from comparison engines / auction sites where you are more dependent of the recognition of the good than the supplier. This is acceptable but you need to be careful.
Purchasing Information
How you communicate your requirements must be clear in every respect
Verification of purchased product
When goods are delivered / implemented you need to determine how they should be checked and recorded as such. Where you or your customer intend to visit your supplier these arrangements need to be recorded within the purchasing information.
This is the old purchasing section 4.6 of the 1994 standard. However since the standard is new and shiny we expect that companies will be tightening the controls on their supplier chain with regard quality systems. How many of your key suppliers are not registered or not progressing toward ISO 9001:2000? We are now helping some of our larger clients rationalise their supplier lists. We have been asked to collate information on certification body, quality manager, which standard the supplier is registered to and by when they will move across to the new standard. Those who are slower to move may well not be considered favourably!
Perhaps you want us to supply you with this data for your suppliers? We can accelerate this administrative task and even perform site visits for you should you require. Contact Us If you would like us to help you manage your supplier lists
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