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Supplier Quality Doesn't Just Happen
December 31, 1969 |Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
By Robert Rowland, RadiSys Corporation
Supplier quality management is a critical success factor, especially when commodities are procured globally and manufacturing is outsourced. The basic strategy for supplier quality management comprises three elements: supplier selection, supplier qualification and approval, and supplier monitoring. This strategy requires well-defined processes for supplier selection, qualification, approval, and monitoring to ensure quality expectations are achieved consistently. Most supplier quality management effort should be focused on preventive actions rather than waiting for problems to occur.
Supplier SelectionGood quality starts with selecting good suppliers. Commodities that do not require on-site audits typically have three phases. The process starts with supplier selection, followed by a paper qualification. If these two phases are successful, the supplier should achieve "approved" status. Commodities requiring on-site audits typically have four phases. The process starts with supplier selection, followed by an on-site supplier audit. If the first two phases are successful, the supplier achieves conditional approval. Upon successful completion of requested closure activities (i.e. first articles), the supplier reaches approved status. Detailed work instructions are needed for the inspection, review, approval, and archiving of first articles.
Supplier QualificationThis process should clearly define the strategy, process, and scoring system for qualifying suppliers. The two qualification methods are internal paper qualifications (no on-site audit is required) and on-site audits. Conducting on-site audits is a major undertaking. Written guidance on how to complete on-site audits using an audit scorecard is highly recommended. It should explain how to organize, conduct, score, and close on-site audits. Scorecards range from fairly simple to very complex. Key areas to cover during the audit include certification and compliance, product services, program support, design and sustaining capability, supply chain management, manufacturing excellence, process and test capability, and quality systems.
Supplier Quality Expectations Written guidance that establishes quality compliance and performance expectations clearly for suppliers is mandatory. Suppliers cannot be held accountable if the rules are not written down and agreed to by both parties. The basis for these expectations is applicable industry standards; if none are available, industry best practices should be used. See my September 2008 column for examples.
Supplier Quality Performance Management Approved suppliers must achieve and maintain a definitive level of quality. Ongoing quality monitoring and feedback for select commodities is necessary to ensure compliance. Off-the-shelf commodities resistors, processors, connectors are not usually monitored on a regular basis unless deemed necessary by a supplier quality engineer. Custom commodities PCBs, faceplates, heatsinks, chassis should be monitored on a regular basis by this quality department. This process should include a document that defines the interaction strategy and a process for monitoring and improving the quality and reliability of materials and products purchased from approved suppliers. Included in this document are guidelines for obtaining, compiling, reviewing, reporting, and archiving supplier quality metrics.
Supplier Quality ImprovementSupplier corrective action reports (SCARs) and structured quality improvement plans should be used to fix individual or systemic quality problems. These documents, if used properly, provide important supplier feedback. When supplier quality does not meet expectations, this process defines a mechanism for corrective action. It should explain how to initiate and close supplier corrective action reports. When SCARs fail to fix the problem, a detailed quality improvement plan (QIP) should be used for suppliers who are not meeting quality or reliability expectations. It should clearly define the quality expectations, the problem that needs to be solved and it should include a closure date. The QIP is a final warning to the supplier; if the problem is not fixed they will be disqualified.
Supplier Quality EngineersSupplier quality engineers have broad responsibilities. They include overseeing the technical aspects of maintaining supplier performance, working with commodity teams to develop and implement supplier quality metrics, maintaining approved supplier list (AML) integrity for all manufacturer part numbers, managing component lifecycle and end of life (EOL) issues, conducting failure analysis and root cause corrective action, and last, but not least, verifying RoHS compliance.
Outsourcing Supplier QualityLike most other services, supplier quality management can also be outsourced. SQA Services (www.sqaservices.com) is one example of a company that provides this type of capability. For more on this topic, read Make the Most of Outsourcing Partnerships.
Robert Rowland is an SMT Editorial Advisory Board member, instructor, and co-author of Applied Surface Mount Assembly. He is process engineering manager at RadiSys Corp., Hillsboro, Ore.; technical conference director of SMTAI; and recipient of the SMTA Founder's Award. Contact him at (503) 615-1354; rob.rowland@radisys.com.