"ISO 9001:2015- A Supply Chain Perspective"

By: Abdur Rahman Farooq

Are you aware of the ISO 9001:2015 clause 8.4 Control of externally provided processes, products, and services?

This clause is all about managing your supply chain and ensuring that your suppliers meet your quality requirements and expectations. In this post, I will explain what this clause means and why it is important for your organization.

The ISO 9001:2015 standard defines an externally provided process, product, or service as any output that is provided by a person or organization that is external to your organization. This can include raw materials, components, subcontracted services, outsourced processes, etc. The standard requires you to control these external provisions to ensure that they do not adversely affect your ability to consistently deliver conforming products and services to your customers.

To control your external provisions, you need to do the following:

• Determine the criteria for selecting, evaluating, and re-evaluating your suppliers
• Communicate your quality requirements and expectations to your suppliers
• Verify that the external provisions meet your requirements before using them
• Monitor and measure the performance of your suppliers and take appropriate actions if needed
• Retain documented information as evidence of conformity to the external provisions

By following these steps, you can ensure that your supply chain is reliable, efficient, and compliant with the ISO 9001:2015 standard. You can also reduce the risks of nonconformities, delays, and defects in your products and services. You can also improve your customer satisfaction and loyalty by delivering consistent quality.

Here are some objectives for the supply chain function of your organization. On the basis of these objectives you can write the KPIs to measure the performance of your supply chain function:

• To reduce the lead time and cost of external provisions
• To increase the quality and reliability of external provisions
• To minimize the waste and defects caused by external provisions
• To enhance collaboration and communication with suppliers
• To achieve a high level of customer satisfaction and loyalty with external provisions

How to demonstrate control of external provisions during an audit?

• Selection and evaluation of suppliers: Being an auditor look for evidence of how the organization determines and applies the criteria for choosing and assessing its suppliers.
• Communication of quality requirements and expectations: Look for evidence of how the organization communicates its quality needs and expectations to its suppliers.
• Verification of external provisions: Look for evidence of how the organization checks that the external provisions meet its requirements before using them.
• Monitoring and measurement of supplier performance: Look for evidence of how the organization monitors and measures how well its suppliers perform and take appropriate actions if needed.

Documented information as evidence of conformity: Look for evidence of how the organization retains and provides documented information to show that the external provisions conform to its requirements.

I hope you found this post helpful and informative. If you want to learn more about the ISO 9001:2015 standard and how it can help you improve your quality management system (QMS), you can visit the official website of ISO or contact me for further assistance. Remember, controlling your external provisions is not only a requirement but also an opportunity for enhancing your QMS performance. Thank you for reading and please share your feedback and comments below.