5 replies to this topic

[kconf]

Hi all,

Lately I have been getting a lot of requests from customers for various forms competition. Am I required to fill out every single form they send to me? 

For example, PFAs certificate - where they write a paragraph about what they are and want my sign & date confirming none present. Wouldn't my PFAs statement be sufficient? 

It is tiring. How would you all respond to such demands?  

TIA

[Tony-C]

Hi kconf,

 

Reply with short letter/note, please find our PFA statement enclosed.

 

Kind regards,

 

Tony

[GMO]

Agree with Tony. Make your commercial team aware of any request. Send a standard statement or policy copying the commercial team in and see if you get away with it. A lot of the time you will. If not, make sure that the commercial team cost the effort of additional Technical asks into their costings.

[TimG]

Like Tony and GMO stated, I reply with my own statements. I have statements that cover all the major requests, and update date and signature annually for the big ones (top 15) and then at time of request for the lesser requested ones. I keep a file of the word docs (to update when needed or change if needed), and a file of the signed PDF's with the year of signature. Easy peasy.

[jfrey123]

I'm glad our customer service handles 99% of these requests, but occasionally they reach out to me on our own supplier approval side when it comes to making sure we're passing requirements down the chain.

 

When sending our forms to our suppliers, we get a number of premade canned responses.  The Big'uns will respond with a sometimes 15-page document that explains their policies on social accountability, EMP, Sanitation, HACCP, their supplier approval, etc., etc.  I'll read through it and so long as I can find that my company's forms have been addressed, I take their canned response.  Lots of times it's because their legal team has gotten involved too, and they don't want some QA admin to put the corporation at risk by agreeing to a form sent by a customer, because if their canned response doesn't meet something I need, I'll respond back with my single form again and ask them to either complete the form or send me a statement on their letterhead.

[SHQuality]

I've seen so many requests over the years that literally nothing shocks me anymore. However, I do wish that some customers should realize that if you expect your supplier to fill in a non-standard document, they may well have to pass the request down the line to get the information you're asking for.

 

Getting an allergy statement, a "this product is free from dioxin"-statement or a Halal certificate shouldn't have to be hard, but if you ask for something that is beyond the normal list of requests, there is a wait time. It's always better to ask this sort of thing early so the QA department can gather the data BEFORE it becomes a problem, but I often see that Sales rarely shares these things beforehand out of hear an inability to deliver the info will crash the deal.