I am familiar with QS9000’s PPAP manual but I am currently working with the ISO9001:2000 standard at a new company. My particular question is in regards to when it is requirement to notify a customer of a material change. Let me give you a specific example that happens regularly. We have a customer come to us and request a type of coating for a particular performance requirement. We design a coating by purchasing or mixing powders together. We submit parts for their approval. We create an internal document called a Material Specification for Vendors that describes the chemical and size ranges and method of manufacture which we submit with our purchase order to the supplier as our requirement.

A year or so later, we either have troubles getting the powder due to unexpected lead times or we find a cheaper powder that performs equivalently (hardness, porosity, deposition rate) and fits within the original Material Specification for Vendors. If the customer’s print or other requirements do not state the particular powder we are to use, do we have to notify the customer per the standard? What is the accepted industry standard? Thanks.