The ISO 9001 Standard requires that your purchasing processes would be defined. However, it is not required to maintain a documented procedure. So, what is required? Well, read and learn…

• Product's name
• Serial number
• Diagrams and editions
• Supply schedules
• Packaging requirements
• Delivery requirements
• Quality management requirements, such as COC certificates or any test reports (COT).
• Etc.

You might set the requirements according to your organization's needs. These requirements are usually documented on a purchasing order. However, it is not a requirement to document your purchasing orders. But when the product's characteristics are not documented within a purchasing order, you would have to document it elsewhere. Whatever the case is, first aspect of documenting the purchasing is the product's characteristics.
The ISO 9001 Standard requires that the next issues would be regarded when documenting the purchase:

Requirements for employees' qualifications and certifications –

Your supplier is employing workers. These workers are responsible for fulfilling and providing your requirements. In some cases you may require that these employees would be qualified in various areas. In some cases your customer would require that as well. This requirement must be documented within the purchasing process. Usually this requirement for qualification appears on a contract or on the customer's list of requirements. 

Requirements for quality management system –

You may require some quality management requirement from your supplier such as:

• ISO 9001 Standard certification (or any other standard)
• Products quality control before delivering
• Any other certification 

External requirements –

In some cases the purchased product would have to be realized under specific requirements such as standard requirements (CE or ISO 14001), legal requirements or special customer's requirements. These requirements must be documented.

Procedures or work instructions that the supplier must attend –

In some cases, the requirements for purchasing products are included within certain procedures, work instruction, plans, etc. These requirements must be documented somewhere: working contract, a procedure etc. Whatever suits your organization.

Trainings or any kind of knowledge regarding the purchased product or the service -

The documentation must refer to any training requirements or knowledge required when the purchased product is provided; trainings over the purchased product or special required knowledge. If a chemical factory purchases any kind of material, it required to get with the material the Material Data Sheet and the technical details regarding the Material 

Approving the purchasing order

Before issuing an order to a supplier, the organization must verify, within a method that he established, that the purchase order includes the required information. In other words, the purchase order must be checked and approved before issuing. The modern sophisticated method these days is with authorization module as part of the ERP system. This way, an order can be initiated and approved only when an authorized person had done it.

Approved suppliers

The organization must maintain a list of its approved suppliers. The the list is one component of controlling the purchasing. The organization should purchases only from suppliers that appear on the list and are approved for purchase. Later on, in another article we would discuss how a supplier can get on the list, in the first place. 

You may want to view the next web site: Qualitymanualtemplares.com. They propose a pretty good solution for achieving the ISO 9001 Standard requirements for purchasing. The solution is easy to implement and to maintain. Give it a try: Qualitymanualtemplares.com.  

SUMMARY –

• The ISO 9001 Standard requires that your purchasing processes would be defined.
• The organization is required to document the request for the product purchased.
• Within the documentation, naturally, you must include all the product's characteristics
• The organization must define special qualifications required from the supplier's employees.
• The organization must define any requirements for quality management system
• The organization must define any special external requirements such as standard requirements, legal requirements or customer's requirements.

aaa