Sorting Cost
Meaning ~ Expense of manually isolating non-conforming items from a suspect shipment to secure a clean point for the production line without halts.
Quality Notification
Meaning
Formal communication alerts inform a supplier that a shipped batch of materials has failed to meet the agreed specifications. Quality engineers issue a quality notification to document the defect, record the test results, and initiate the corrective action process. This document governs the early containment phase, notifying the supplier that they must take immediate action to prevent further defective shipments.
It remains open until the supplier’s corrective action plan is approved and verified by the buyer.
Information Flow
Technical documentation must be uploaded to the shared portal as soon as a defect is discovered. The quality notification includes details such as part numbers, batch IDs, photographs of the defect, and measurement reports. This data sharing prevents the supplier from shipping additional defective parts that could be in transit.
Supplier Action
Manufacturing plants must respond to these alerts within twenty-four hours to outline their immediate containment plans. The supplier must isolate all affected inventory in their own warehouse and in transit. This containment action is the first step before the supplier can begin investigating the root cause of the failure.
Process Resolution
Sourcing organizations track the time it takes to resolve these notices as a primary supplier performance metric. A quality notification is closed only after the supplier submits a detailed eight-discipline report and the buyer verifies the effectiveness of the permanent corrective actions. This structured process ensures that the defect will not reoccur in future production runs.