8.5.3 Property belonging to customers or external providers
This week, we’ll discuss some of the situations when organizations along the whole supply chain cooperate in order to produce a product or service. As important as defining requirements prior to entering into a contractual agreement, it is also important to clearly define responsibilities where materials or equipment is shared as part of the agreement. The standard states:
“The organization shall exercise care with property belonging to customers or external providers while it is under the organization’s control or being used by the organization.” It’s tough to be more specific than “exercise care” when defining how far an organization should go to protecting a customer’s or external provider’s property. When trying to demonstrate compliance, there could be some grey area here, unless the specifics are actually defined in a contract somewhere. But common sense says, an organization should take appropriate measures to protect anything that is temporarily stored or on loan from someone else.
“The organization shall identify, verify, protect and safeguard customers’ or external providers’ property provided for use or incorporation into the products and services.” I take issue with the requirements of “identify” and “verify”, because it is my opinion that this should be the responsibility of the owner (customer or external provider). But, I must relent that if this is not already done, it must be done by the organization to ensure anything not belonging to the organization is clearly identified as such.
“When the property of a customer or external provider is lost, damaged or otherwise found to be unsuitable for use, the organization shall report this to the customer or external provider and retain documented information on what has occurred.” Nothing much new here. The only caution is to ensure that “documented information” is retained, should a report of this nature take place.
“NOTE A customer’s or external provider’s property can include materials, components, tools and equipment, premises, intellectual property and personal data.” I like this additional clarification which includes intellectual property and data. These are commonly shared, and there has been little attention to this previously.
THIS WEEK’S HOMEWORK
Have a look at your process and how this area is dealt with in your QMS. But so much more importantly, get out there and look around! How much property belonging to customers or external providers do you actually have? Do have returnable packaging? Consignment materials? Borrowed tooling? Proprietary software? Fixtures/gauges? Labels? Are you leasing land or space from an external provider? Open your mind and look around. Be sure your system’s scope includes all the scenarios and requirements in the standard. Then, take things a step further and ask, “What if?” What if something belonging to a customer or supplier was actually “lost, damaged or otherwise found to be unsuitable for use”? Is the notification process sufficient?
