Preventive Action Suggestion for Nonconforming Materials Issue

Hi guys,

Do you have any suggestion on Preventation Action for issue with non-conforming raw materials? e.g. found mold in ingredient, that ingredient was from a single supplier.

Hi guys,

Do you have any suggestion on Preventation Action for issue with non-conforming raw materials? e.g. found mold in ingredient, that ingredient was from a single supplier.

Do you mean a visual contamination ?

I presume you hv a mutually agreed specification which either has a zero tolerance or a (lower) maximum allowance.

If so, probably you can reject and claim accordingly.

Rgds / Charles.C

Do you mean a visual contamination ?

I presume you hv a mutually agreed specification which either has a zero tolerance or a (lower) maximum allowance.

If so, probably you can reject and claim accordingly.

Rgds / Charles.C

Charles,

I am assuming that it is a visible microbial contamination e.g. mold. For me, reject the lot will be an immediate corrective action. However, I would like to have opinion on long term preventative action. Would that be evaluation of supplier and scout for alternate supplier?

Dear rotiboy,

Well, IMEX, it depends on yr internal decision-making plan.
For example, when you source raw materials etc, one usually does not make a "stop" decision on a regular supplier based solely on one lot unless there is some horrific disaster (eg quality, trust or money-wise).

An example of "horrific" might be if this were a new supplier and business was initiated on the basis of a trial sample which was of a totally different calibre to the clearly unacceptable delivered lot. It happens.

In contrast, if you hv been doing regular business for years with no comparable problems so that this was probably caused by some abnormal circumstances, the reaction would usually be different.

A generic approach is to set up an action system based on a mixture of safety (Ma/Mi/Cr etc) / non-safety defects. The former criteria tend to be assessed continuously while the latter are time-averaged, graded, and acted on accordingly (eg Grade A max 2% defects / month = satisfactory, D = >10% = Unsatisfactory = action). Similar set-up as used by factory auditors and examples of which are scattered around this forum (eg try search for "supplier"). Usually necessary to hv a separate evaluation for new suppliers.

The ease of application may depend on the product form / quantity / value / number of lots per time interval. Some official sets of plans exist, eg Mil. Standards.

Rgds / Charles.C