Customer Notification

We are an automotive supplier. When reviewing the AIAG PPAP blue book, section 3.1, there is a table that states some situations in which your customer would need to be notified. One of the examples that they give is a "change in test/inspection method - new technique". My question is, would changes in inspection frequency be considered a change in test/inspection method? For example, if we were checking something on on hourly basis and decided to move to once a shift, would the customer need to be notified?

 

Probably, since you are reducing the frequency. Although, I had a customer chastise me when I asked "how often" they would want us to check certain dimensions (like you hourly vs. once per shift). I was apparently the "expert" blah, blah, blah.

 

Good day @bkirch ;
First I would like to pose some questions to you....
1- Assuming your customer issues one, what does your customer "supplier handbook" state?
2- IF you asked your customer, what do you think the answer would be ?
3- If your supplier changed inspection frequency would your organization want to know?
4- What does your control plan (a "how we'll do it" contract with your customer) state?

I assume you can infer from my questions that I would propose you do indeed consider a change in inspection frequency something that your customer would wish to know about. Keep in mind, anytime we "ask" for a concession/reduction, the customer/individual we are dealing with will usually be hesitant to a approve what they fear may be a reduction in controls.

Allow me to provide a specific example that I dealt with....
During my time at a previous organization I challenged my team to identify tasks they did simply because they were told to. One of the items they brought forward was an extremely time consuming product verification that they performed on a daily basis since the start of business. From their records they were able to show that they had NEVER had a nonconformance during these verifications. As result, I asked them to create a presentation that provided the Cpk (all well above 2.0) and a summary of the inspection result history. Armed with this data proactively they were able to approach the customer and give them confidence that a reduction in frequency (we freed up prox. 20 man/hours per week!) was acceptable and that they could spend this extra time working on other projects that would ultimately be beneficial to the customer (one must be careful how to approach this, because simply showing less time expended can cause the customer's commercial team to get involved and ask for cost down !)

Hope this helps.
Be well.