LOL.....great story! Thanks for sharing! Damned if you.....damned if you don't.....
On Sep 22, 2017 12:13 PM, "Richard Nute" <ri...@ieee.org> wrote: Back when I was working… For each of our part numbers, we had a drawing (spec). For purchased parts, the drawing was a cut and paste of the part manufacturer’s spec. This drawing equated our part number to the manufacturer’s part number. If the part was required to be certified, such was indicated on the drawing. This drawing was used for purchasing the part. Then, the company did away with incoming inspection. The certification houses had a fit, and threatened to appeal to the president of the company. I told the certification houses that I couldn’t justify setting up an inspection process and hiring people to look for the certification mark (for which we never had a failure). (The certification houses had no sympathy for our expenses.) Instead, I invited the certification house inspectors to the production line where they could look at the parts as they were being installed in the product. This worked. (Some parts are bulk-marked, so the certification mark is on the package. In one inspection, the package had been discarded to the compactor. Our manufacturing host climbed into the compactor and retrieved the package!) We installed process measurement. My process measurement was the number of inspection deficiencies, any one of which threatened to shut down the production line. So, I instituted a periodic line inspection in anticipation of a certification house inspection. I was much more thorough and detailed than the certification house inspectors. I drove the deficiencies to zero. This infuriated the inspectors, so the certification houses sent managers to see why their inspectors could find no deficiencies. Sigh. Rich *From:* Kunde, Brian [mailto:brian_ku...@lecotc.com] *Sent:* Friday, September 22, 2017 5:44 AM *To:* EMC-PSTC@LISTSERV.IEEE.ORG *Subject:* Re: [PSES] Safety critical component part #'s and Agency approvals We address this possible issue in two ways. 1. We list the certification markings that are on Safety Critical Components on our purchase print as “incoming inspection requirements”. When parts are received, our IQA department visually verifies that the certification markings on the parts match the print. If they are different, the parts are rejected until this issues has been resolved (possible the manufacturer changed the certification body, etc.). 2. The purchase print also has a statement that says that the supplier must notify us in advance of any changes to the part including regulatory certifications and status. The purchase print is a type of contract between the supplier and the purchasing company. 3. Our Compliance Department performs Production Audits (usually on an annual bases) on all families of products. During these audits, all safety critical components are verified that they are what they are supposed to be and verifies the certification markings. The certification markings is also a type of contract or declaration from the manufacturer. Datasheets and pages from the manufacturer’s catalog that shows certification marks, symbols, or a list of standards are really meaningless and as others have already pointed out this information can change without warning. The Other Brian *From:* Regan Arndt [mailto:reganar...@gmail.com <reganar...@gmail.com>] *Sent:* Thursday, September 21, 2017 4:39 PM *To:* EMC-PSTC@LISTSERV.IEEE.ORG *Subject:* [PSES] Safety critical component part #'s and Agency approvals Greetings everyone, My experience in regulatory compliance dates back to 1994 where it was a foregone conclusion that most component manufacturers did not identify their agency certification as a unique identifier in their part number. I have seen some good progress over the years, but I also believe that the industry still continues to eliminate redundant certification (due to standards harmonization) or sometimes complete agency certification (for the sake of cost reduction) on components without changing their respective part number. Or even worse, continue to advertise that the component is approved but in reality, it is not. Has anyone experienced anything recently that they wish to share? P.S. I am updating my old safety presentation and need some good examples before I present again to our local IEEE chapter meeting. Thanks for sharing whatever you can. (privately or within this forum) Cheers! Regan - ---------------------------------------------------------------- This message is from the IEEE Product Safety Engineering Society emc-pstc discussion list. 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