Control of outsourcing partners and suppliers

i.e. As a distributor are we required to ask our suppliers/manufacturers to be compliant with a particular standard? If they are not compliant, should all the products they supply be classified as a non-conforming product?

We had a process in place previously where we would ask all suppliers to complete a compliance form and ask for their most up to date certificates. Products supplied by suppliers with non-existent or out dated certificates would be classified and non-conforming and would be dealt with accordingly, however we were told this is no longer necessary.

Answer:

Yes, the standard requires control of outsourced processes, but it does not define to what extent. Basically, you will need to determine what extent of control is necessary. In some cases the contract will be enough or clearly defined requirements regarding the o utsourcing partner and in some cases you might need to require that the service or product provided to you by outsourcing partner to be produced and delivered under certain conditions sou you might have to provide them documented procedures or instructions and to conduct on site inspections.

Of course, the level of control of the outsourcing partners may vary from situation to situation. For example if your outsourcing partner is a small company then you might impose higher level of control, but if your supplier or outsourcing partner is some big company oversees that you won't be able to enforce much control on them.

You might require form your supplier to have certificate but that is completely up to you, the standard only requires you to establish controls but it doesn't prescribe what control you should establish. If having certificate is enough for you to determine whether the suppliers can or can not deliver what you expect from them, than it is OK.

For more information, see:
- How to control outsourced processes using ISO 9001 https://advisera.com/9001academy/blog/2015/05/05/how-to-control-outsourced-processes-using-iso-9001/