Change: Relaxed Requirements
Procedure Required: NO
Record(s) Required: Supplier evaluations (ref. sec. 7.4.1)
Comments:
This section requires the organization to:
establish criteria for selection, evaluation and re-evaluation or
suppliers,
ensure the adequacy of specified purchase requirements prior to
their communication to the supplier,
establish and implement the inspection or other activities
necessary for ensuring that purchased product meets specified purchase
requirements.
Guidance:
I suggest paraphrasing the wording of the standard in your Quality
Manual AND collecting reasonable records as evidence of having qualified
your suppliers (this can be virtually anything because the standard
does not require you to document the evaluation criteria).
CAUTION - Phantom Requirement:
Some ISO 9000 auditors interpret the statement "Criteria for selection,
evaluation and re-evaluation shall be established", to
mean that suppliers must be periodically re-evaluated. This
interpretation is highly arguable. I suggest that you define your
criteria for re-evaluating suppliers as vaguely as the standard requires
it. Simply state to your ISO 9000 auditor, for example, that "Suppliers
will be re-evaluated on an as-needed basis as determined by the
purchasing manager."
