Procedures for identifying product

The standard requires the supplier to establish and maintain documented procedures where appropriate for identifying the product bp suitable means from receipt and during all stages of production, delivery, and installation. 

Note that in ISO/TS 16949 documented procedures are needed where the product identity is not inherently obvious - the where appropriate condition has been removed. If products are so dissimilar that inadvertent mixing would be unlikely to occur, a means of identifying the products is probably unnecessary. Inherently obvious in this context means that the physical differences are large enough to be visible to the untrained eye. Therefore functional differences, no matter how significant - as well as slight differences in physical characteristics, such as color, size, weight, appearance - would constitute an appropriate situation for documented identification procedures. 

Procedures for identifying product should start at the design stage when the product is conceived. The design should be given a unique identity, a name, or a number, and that should be used on all related documents. When the product emerges into production. 

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