How Long To Keep Non-Conforming Material?

Hello All -

We are a plastics compounder and from time to time, we have rejected material. The reason for the rejection could be that it is not the right color, the physical properties don't match our customer's spec, its contaminated, etc.

My question, is how would you determine how to keep this material?

Normally, we hold onto it, and if it can be corrected, we try to correct it in the next order. But sometimes customers don't order the material for 4 or 5 years! This means I am spending a lot of time tracking material that is just sitting there for almost half a decade.

Selling to scrap dealers is not really an option. I've tried contacting several companies, and they have stated that if its less than a truck load of material, they are not interested.

The lot sizes range from 20# to 300#. Majority of the rejections are 50#.

Thoughts?

Thank you in advance.

 

I suppose I would base the decision on a combination of factors. Cost to you (materials and labor time), floor space, time between customer orders, and lot size.

As far as scraping, would you be able to get a dumpster and collect unwanted material until it is enough for the scrap companies?

 

We would feed it to the grinder and then run a 'regrind' item to use it, or sometimes capstock it, depending if it was just a color/brittleness issue. Otherwise, as you said, we would have gaylords of regrind material sitting on pallets taking up space. Eventually, we would pay to a processor to pick it up and take it away to be used as pipe or fence base. This was certainly not an ideal solution as we not only paid to store it, but paid to dispose of it as well, but there wasn't any other way to get rid of it. For smaller amounts as you have, do not overlook the 'green recycle' companies building things from reprocessed plastics. They typically do not need as much, and while you may not be able to actually sell it, they may pick it up for free. Finding these is not easy since they tend to be small operations. Here is an quick example of what I mean - http://www.dgrade.com/

 

I had tried to contact colleges around here. I was thanked for the information - and was told that they would pass it on to the instructors in those plastics departments - but never heard anything more

 

Actually Claes, there could be a retention period required, we operated under the AAMA program, http://www.aamanet.org/general/1/32/certification , which did have required inspection, retention, and test products records, and were audited twice a year by this CB. I cannot remember the retention time, I think it was three years though. Colors had to be 'exposed' to UV for certain times, and plastic baked in a dry air oven and inspected for inclusions, delamination, etc. Impact tests and other tests had to have records and samples retained as well.

 

A bit of both. I want to figure out if there is a formula I can come up with to determine the amount of time to keep the material. Sales is always pushing me to hold onto stuff by saying, "Oh I should get a PO any day for this stuff, please don't get rid of it yet". And then it never happens. If I can come up with a solid formula to determine the time frame to hold the material, than I can use that regardless of their begging...

When it comes time to get rid of the material, since most are small lots, we just toss it in a compactor - but sometime with the larger lots, that is difficult to do.

 

Do you have a "expiration date" or warranty period for your product? If so, then raw materials/product should not be stored beyond that, and probably well short of that, keeping in mind you are technically lengthening this by storing the product for a length of time and then selling it. If I buy a brand new car with a ten year -100,000 mile warranty, and park it in my garage for 9 years, there no longer is an 'additional' 10 years on the warranty, only 1 year. Products unsold in inventory are 'running the meter' on UV breakdown, hydroscopic absorption, and damage, to say the least.

 

We do apply a shelf-life to our materials of 2 years. Although we do offer recertification of the product once it passes the shelf-life as long as the material has sat unopened.

 

Another option to think about for disposition of this material is the risk of flow-out. I have seen instances where material was rejected, tagged, and later used in production.

 

Funny...I do that very thing with some "off-cuts". It is very effective.

Sales ends up using the parts as trade-show demos or comes back asking how to scrap it.

 

If it's a real issue, I would have thought QA should be directing Sales on what's happening with the nonconforming stock. I'd be interested to hear how you went on with this since it was first posted Aug 2015. Did you make progress?

 

Can I be a fly on the wall for that meeting? I'll bring popcorn...

 

"..on what's happening with the nonconforming stock.." <--- adding in context

 

Didn't mean to take it our of context, Mike...I just think it would be entertaining to watch QA direct Sales on any topic at all.
Sales and QA....that's like saying "Round" and "Outgoing"...there just isn't much common ground to stand on...