Procurement control

Procurement control measures should be documented and ensure that purchased items and services meet defined requirements and performance criteria. 

Items or services may be procured to different levels of quaUty, depending on their importance and impact on safety. A graded approach to quality, as described in Safety Series No. 113 [IV.3], may be used in the procurement of such items and services. 

Supplier evaluation procedures as part of the procurement process should ensure that only suitably qualified suppliers are selected and used. The selection of suppliers should be based on their evaluated and documented capability to provide items or services in accordance with the requirements of the procurement documents, and should take account of the type of product and its impact on the quality of the final product or service. Appropriate records of evaluation and supplier selection should be maintained. 

Purchasing documents should contain data clearly describing the product or service required such documents should be reviewed and approved before release. These data may include reference to applicable regulatory requirements, standards or codes, drawings, specifications, quality and other requirements as necessary. 

Purchasing verification measures should provide for agreement between the supplier and the purchaser on methods used to verify that all purchasing requirements will be met. Where verification of the purchased product will be performed at the subcontractor s premises, the verification arrangements should be clearly specified in the purchasing documents. The supplier, competent authority (when necessary), or their representatives, should have access to plant facilities, items, materials and 

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I-H Procure control-device bids. N-R Install control device. 

QA programme Organization Document control Design control Procurement control Material control Process control Inspection and test control Non-conformance control Corrective actions Records Staff training Servicing Audits... 

Material Control. Production forecasting, scheduling, direct and iadirect material procurement, purchasiag, shipping and receiving, storerooms, storage, surplus equipment, and reclamation of materials are iacluded. 

Use of Results. Sales analysis data are used ia many ways by company management. The results are most useful ia production planning, particularly if grade differences appear to be ia the offing, and ia assuting that adequate suppHes are available for sales. Inventory control, raw material procurement, technical service requirements, and trends ia accounts receivable are beneficiaries of good sales analyses. 

Certified testing and approval for control-valve devices used in hazardous locations is normally procured by the manufacturer of the device. The manufacturer often goes to a third party laboratory for testing and certification. Applicable approval standards are available from CSA, CENELEC, EM, SAA, and UL. 

E-F Prepare preliminary control plan and O-P Procure constmction bids. 

Control over procurement of raw material and components that compose inputs... 

Supplier partnerships or alliances have been used to control the cost of procurement. They are based on methods developed in Japan, initially in the automobile industry. These methods have been extended into the process industry and for the purchase of such items as compressor trains. Generally as originally conceived, they were intended mainly for commodity items. By using some innovative approaches, the concept of partnerships or alliances has been extended into the purchase of custom equipment. 

Prior to the publication of ISO 9000, several nations had developed national quality system standards, with many used only in the procurement of military equipment. With the emergence of the NATO Quality Control System standards in 1973, the Quality Panel of the UK Society of Motor Manufacturers set out to develop an equivalent standard for non-military applications. The result was BS 4891, which was published in 1972. In 1974 this was followed by BS 5179 with the title Operation and Evaluation of Quality Assurance Systems. However, BS 5179 was intended only as a guide and it was not until 1979, with the publication of BS 5750, that major purchasers in the UK had a standard that could be invoked in contracts. A certification scheme was eventually established in 1983, following the UK government s white paper on competitiveness ... 

Do the design controls ensure that design outputs are documented and in a form suitable for procurement, manufacture, verification, and installation ... 

Customer engineering standards and specifications are external documents. Therefore your procedure for controlling external documents should also cover these documents. Where ISO/TS 16949 differs from ISO 9001 on this topic is that ISO 9001 does not require external documents to be reviewed or implemented. However, any external document received or procured for the organization should be reviewed for its applicability before it is brought under control, otherwise resources could be wasted on controlling documents that have no practical use in the organization. This requirement could be placed under Contract rev/ew since any documents issued by customers form part of the contract and should go through contract review before acceptance and implementation. 

Once the make or buy decision has been made, control of any purchasing activity follows a common series of activities, which are illustrated in Figure 6.2. There are four key processes in the procurement cycle for which you should prepare procedures ... 

Processes in this context means those series of related activities that turn inputs into outputs of added value. They include design, procurement, manufacture, packing, delivery, installation, maintenance, operations, disposal as well as the processes which serve these primary processes such as calibration, training, inspection, test, document control, etc. 

Aids in the procurement of information on the contents and potential toxicity of substances that may cause accidental poisonings and on the proper management ofpoisonings. Establishes standards for poison information and control centers and maintains a national database on poisons. 

Included in this element are requirements for purchasing documents (specifications, drawings, and purchase orders), selection of suppliers, inspection and control of received material and record-keeping. For ESH/PSM, this element would focus on those aspects of the procurement process which support purchasing according to regulatory requirements, safety standards, risk management controls, etc. 

There are at least a dozen semiconductor manufacturers making the popular 384x series controllers. All of them behave slightly differently. The same applies to any other semiconductor device made by several vendors. Be cautious of so-called equivalents. So if your company s smart-alecky purchase officer has just cooked up a new deal to procure your 1N5408 diodes at half price (from some hitherto unknown manufacturer on the Mainland, for example), replace it and confirm that it is not causing the problem. 

SCOR-project is to identify, evaluate and prioritize actions using shortcut methods. SCOR-projects are usually executed by teams made up of members of different departments including customer service, sales, controlling, operations, procurement and logistics. The teams are supported by internal consultants, who provide knowledge about the SCOR-model and preside over the team meetings. 

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