Supplier quality
The 8D, run by the supplier who has to do it
Most systems record that a corrective action happened. This one runs the loop: your supplier fills in their own containment and root cause, you review the containment before anyone asks about root cause, and a fix that turns out not to work sends the request back round.
What happens to a request
- You
Raise it
Part, quantity, defect category, severity, what is wrong with it. Cost and recovery are yours and stay yours.
- Supplier
Contains it
D1 to D3, in their own words: who is on it, the problem as they understand it, what they have quarantined and where.
- You
Review the containment
Accept it, or send it back saying what is missing. Nobody is asked for a root cause while the bleeding is still happening.
- Supplier
Finds the cause
D4 to D6: why it was made, why it escaped, the analysis behind both, and the corrective action with the date it went in.
- You
Verify it worked
Record the deliveries you checked. If it was not effective, the request goes back to root cause rather than closing on a promise.
They only ever see their half
What an incident cost you, what you are claiming back, the debit note, the effect on their rating — those are marked private and are absent from the supplier's view, not greyed out. So is the name of whoever reviewed their answer. They are told what to fix, which is the part they can act on.
Their turn is only their turn
A field is required of the supplier in the state where they answer it and read-only everywhere else. You can raise a request without the 8D fields blocking you, and they cannot be asked for root cause while they are still containing.
Late is visible without being punitive
A containment or response that passes its date moves to an overdue state the day after. The supplier can still submit from there and it goes on exactly as it would have. The state exists to show you where the delay is, not to take the work away.
One record, two organisations
The whole exchange is a single audit trail with both sides' people in it, each action against the name of whoever took it. An auditor asking what happened three years ago gets one answer rather than your file and theirs.
It arrives as a starting point, not a straitjacket
Supplier Corrective Action is a template. Copy it and it is yours: rename the states to the ones your quality manual uses, add the fields you ask for and remove the ones you do not, change who can make which move. The eleven states and the shape of the loop are a default, and defaults are meant to be argued with.
Start with it