Quality Management for Complaints against Suppliers

This scope item describes the management of complaints against suppliers, for example, after delivery of a product.

Leveraging quality notifications, the quality engineer captures all complaint-related information including the observed defects. The quality engineer enters immediate actions for documentation purposes and requests a root cause analysis from the supplier. Furthermore, the quality engineer can keep a record of his communication with the supplier. 

The quality engineer defines tasks either globally at notification level or per defect. The quality engineer assigns one processor to each task. The task is processed, and task processors give feedback per task. After having received the supplier's root cause analysis, identified root causes can be assigned to each defect.

Finally, the quality engineer reviews each task and closes the notification.

Key Process Steps Covered

  • Create quality notification with basic data
  • Capture defects and document immediate actions
  • Define tasks
  • Execute tasks and document outcome
  • Review tasks
  • Document supplier root cause analysis
  • Complete notification

Benefits

  • Capture complaint details, related defects, causes, and activities in one single place
  • Manage different types of activities (for example immediate, corrective, and preventive actions)
  • Assign a person responsible to each action and track action status and outcome