QUALITY RATING IMPACT POLICY
Revised 1-25-99
In order to encourage suppliers to be open and honest about problems incurred with non-conforming or “suspected” non-conforming material, the following policy is effective
01 November 1999. John Deere reserves the right to waive this policy should the supplier repeatedly abuse this privilege.
1.A supplier’s Achieving Excellence quality rating can be positively impacted if a supplier proactively contacts the [John Deere unit] about a known or “suspected” quality problem. The following conditions must be met. The supplier:
1.1Contacts [John Deere unit], prior to the point of use.
1.2Conducts the investigation, sorting or reclaim personally, or through a qualified third party.
1.3Reports the results of the investigation, sorting or reclaim, to the [John Deere representative], or his representative prior to leaving the [John Deere unit]
1.4Provide an acceptable corrective action in writing, in a timely manner, to ensure that the defect can not occur again in the future. (*Ref: JDS-G223 section 5.12)
1.5The appropriate [John Deere representative], is the sole judge of timeliness and acceptability of the corrective action.
1.6This policy does not relieve the supplier of any financial, commercial, or material responsibilities.
Quality Rating Impact:
If the above criteria is met, zero pieces will be rejected against the supplier’s quality rating regardless of the number of non-conforming parts found, returned, or reworked.
2.0If John Deere discovers non-conforming material, and the supplier responds per sections 1.2 through 1.6, only the material actually found non-conforming inside the factory will be counted against the supplier’s quality rating
Quality Rating Impact:
Only the exact amount of non-conforming material will be recorded if the supplier’s response is timely.
3.0If the supplier and the [John Deere unit] find it necessary to return a defective lot of material for sorting, the entire quantity returned will be initially considered as non-conforming and will count against that supplier’s quality rating.*
*The supplier can request adjustment to these figures by reporting results of the sort and complying with sections 1.2, 1.4, 1.5 and 1.6.
Quality Rating Impact:
The supplier will be responsible for reporting the actual quantity of parts found defective in the returned lot to the [John Deere representative]. Only the non-conforming material found will be counted against the supplier’s quality rating.