The 9000 Resource

Control of Production and Service Provision

In section 7.1 you were asked to plan for all of your product realization processes, including processes that do not result in the product or service that is delivered to the customer (customer-related processes, design and development and purchasing). Planning included identifying things like:

• Documentation Requirements
• Resources
• Measuring and monitoring activities
• Inspection and test activities
• Product criteria
• Records required

In 7.5.1 the requirements focus on the processes that actually create your hardware or your service that is delivered to your customers. You are required to follow the plan that you created based on requirements in 7.1

A written procedure for this section will be useful in defining how you are meeting these requirements. By clearly documenting the way that you are satisfying the requirements of 7.5.1 you will ensure that the requirement are understood and followed consistently.

Most organizations will also need documentation in the form of work instructions to control these processes. Your planning in 7.1 will determine where these are needed; to meet the requirements of 7.5.1 these must be in place, available to employees performing the process. Instructions can take many different forms: written steps, pictures, drawings, prints, travelers or flow charts are some of the methods used. Specify in your procedure what documents are necessary for the control of your processes.

The procedure should also state how you ensure that suitable equipment is used, and how release, delivery and post-delivery activities are controlled.

How can we identify requirements not stated by the customer, but necessary?

How can we identify requirements not stated by the customer, but necessary? This requirement is found in Customer Related Processes; these are “implicit” requirements. What do you know about your product that the customer does not need to specify, or may not even know themselves?

You know the intended use of your product, and are the expert on the product. If a customer in a luggage shop requests “Carry on Luggage”, they may not know what the acceptable size is to be able to carry on the bag. But the company that sells their bag as “Carry on Luggage” should know what the restrictions are, and meet those restrictions even though the customer did not know the size they needed.

How to handle customer related processes

Does your organization have processes in place to determine customer requirements? What about a process to review those requirements and make sure that you can meet those requirements?

Determination of Requirements
Your goal here is to set up a process to make sure that however an order is accepted, all the requirements for that order are determined. Every organization will have different types of requirements, so you must do some planning up front to identify what information you need to get from the customer.

The use of order forms that prompt personnel to ask the right questions is a good tool to use here. You may also use a similar technique to make sure that the customer fills in all the relevant information. Good up front planning while you set up your process will identify all of the types of information you may need to collect.

Review of requirements
Your process must include a step for reviewing the requirements, and making sure that you can meet those requirements. You must understand your process and know at what point you are accepting the order, saying yes you can meet requirements. You will need a record of this review and acceptance.

You will also need to consider how you handle changes to orders, you must review the changes to ensure that you can meet the new requirements.

Customer Communication
Evaluate the ways you use to communicate with customers. Do you have customer service that takes orders? A catalogue that communicates what you have to offer? Are your methods achieving planned results- that is are they effective? If so, would you benefit from formalizing them as a procedure, or is training sufficient to make sure that communication is effective and consistent?