Subcontractor development

Common quality system approach for subcontractor development... 

Many subcontractors supply product or services to several vehicle manufacturers. Therefore by harmonizing the standards by which subcontractor development will be conducted, variations in the approach to subcontractors will be minimal. 

Subcontractor development should not be limited to the assessment for compliance to ISO/TS 16949 as indicated in Note 1. The standard contains the minimum requirements and, with the requirement for continuous improvement, it may be necessary to work with some of your subcontractors in order to develop their capability to improve process capability and delivery schedules or reduce avoidable costs. You can t develop all your subcontractors and hence Note 2 of the standard indicates that you should prioritize subcontractors for development based upon performance and importance of product or service supplied. 

A toller may need to use resources outside their company to measure physical properties, conduct safety or other testing, engineer changes to piping or other facilities and equipment. This need frequently occurs for products in the initial development or commercialization stage. The toller should maintain confidentiality agreements with their suppliers and subcontractors commensurate with the proprietary nature of their client companies processes. Provision to allow disclosure of information to third parties should be addressed in the contract between the toller and the client. It may be structured so that the client must approve the toller s release of information to third parties. 

The next step is to talk to individual task managers or others who can expect to perform the work. This may include subcontractors or other personnel who will perform work on the site. If contractors are involved, a decision should be made as to the relationship and responsibility for overall safety responsibility. If the HASP is likely to be adopted by others, this should be kept in mind during development. 

JHAs of individual work operations or tasks and their associated hazards should be included in the plan to help develop effective controls. Many times subcontractor activities are added to the safety plan after its original publication. Typically, subcontractor activity is specialized and short lived. It would be advantageous to have all JHAs completed and included as part of the work before the work begins. 

Subcontractor may be used in support zone or nonhazardous site activities. Eor limited activities at a hazardous waste site, the scope of work must be reviewed with the health and safety professional before work is started (examples landscape service, electricians, software development, training, etc.). The subcontractor must meet the following minimum requirements ... 

ISO/TS 16949 applies to the design, development, production, and, when relevant, installation and servicing of automotive-related products. The standard primarily applies to suppliers and subcontractor sites that provide ... 

Procedures that include the management of subcontractor programs during development and deal with the transmission of information to and from the subcontractors, what is to be transmitted, by whom, in what form, and with whose approval... 

Many different types of models may be produced to aid product development, test theories, experiment with solutions, etc. However, when the design is complete, prototype models representative in all their physical and functional characteristics to the production models may need to be produced. When building prototypes, the same materials, locations, subcontractors, tooling, and processes should be used as will be used in actual production so as to minimize the variation (see also clause 4.4.8.3). 

The evaluation may need to be carried out by a review team, by subcontractors, or by the original proposer however, regardless of who carries out the evaluation, the results should be presented to the change control board for a decision. During development there are two decisions the board will need to make ... 

You need to develop documented procedures that define your subcontractor evaluation and selection process and in certain cases this may result in several closely-related procedures for use when certain conditions apply. Do not try to force every purchase through the same selection process. Having purchasing policies that require three quotations for every purchase regardless of past performance of the current subcontractor is placing price before quality. Provide flexibility so that the policies and procedures complexity match the risks anticipated. Going out to tender for a few standard nuts and bolts would seem unwise. Likewise, placing an order for lm of equipment based solely on the results of a third party ISO 9000 certification would also seem unwise. 

You will need a documented procedure for generating the AVL, adding new subcontractors, changing data, and removing subcontractors that no longer meet your criteria. Whether in paper form or in a computer database, treat it as a controlled document or controlled data and apply the document/data controls developed to meet element 4.5 of ISO 9001. 

Pre-qualification is a process for selecting contractors for known future work. The design will have proceeded to a stage where an outline specification of the essential parameters has been developed. You know roughly what you want but not in detail. Pre-qualification is undertaken to select those subcontractors that can demonstrate they have the capability to meet your specific requirements on quality, quantity, price, and... 

A statement of work which you require the subcontractor to perform - it might be design, development, management, or verification work and will include a list of required deliverables such as project plans, quality plans, production plans, drawings, test data, etc. You need to be clear as to the interfaces both organizationally and technically (see Part 2 Chapter 4). 

On the due date when the tenders should have been received, record those that have been submitted and discard any submitted after the deadline. Conduct an evaluation to determine the winner - the subcontractor that can meet all your requirements (including confidence) for the lowest price. The evaluation phase should involve all your staff that were involved with the specification of requirements. You need to develop scoring criteria so that the result is based on objective evidence of compliance. 

The standard requires suppliers to perform subcontractor quality system development with the goal of subcontractor compliance to ISO/TS 16949 or an existing customer quality system requirement... 

To what extent do you steer the development of your subcontractors quality systems towards ISO/TS 16949 compliance ... 

It has already been noted that PERT was developed to speed up the Polaris project. The Navy was dealing with hundreds of subcontractors, each constructing parts in a different location. These were then sent to an assembly point where the submarine was put together. Until the items arrived there, the activities were essentially independent. This is different from CPM, which was developed mainly for maintenance turnarounds at a given location. Under these conditions, everything was closely interrelated. 

Efforts should be made to establish strategic alliances and to ensure joint development and the continuous improvement of products, processes, and systems. The company should ensure thorough review and evaluation of the performance of subcontractors in order to meet customer requirements. 

From what has been learned over the past year during this assessment phase, The Aerospace Corporation and its subcontractors will be concentrating now on the development of better blood identification methodologies. Improved immunological and electrophoretic methods, as well as combinations of these and other new methods, are being explored for application to the forensic serology problem. Other new blood systems with even higher discrimination capabilities are known but have yet to be adapted for use with dried blood. 

This accident has also been discussed in terms of a comparison between developed countries and developing ones. The developing countries are considered likely to fall prey to major accidents because of technological imbalances within them and because of less interest in safety. There is some truth in these statements.Even in Japan, many accidents have involved subcontractors. Hazardous goods need to be handled only in places where their dangerous properties are well understood and appropriate safety measures can be taken. 

A lump sum developed by the bidders (subcontractors) based on the bidding documents. 

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