[PnP-Focus] Re: Customer & Supplier (Answer to Rainal Lasumin)

Dear Rainal Lasumin,
 Thank you for your query.
 Now let us first Understand the business u r doing in terms of
 Supplier, Organization & Customer
 Supplier = Raw Material Provider
 Organization = Entity that transforms raw materials to final product or
services provider
 Customer = potential or ultimate user.
 Now as u have mentioned here that u take the raw materials (poultry, raw
honey, mushroom)
from the farmers so in *real sense they are the suppliers here.*

How are they customers I dont really understand.
*"We kept thier bank pass book(customer property)"*
**
*Well by definitaion CUSTOMER PROPERTY" is the service or product they
(Customers) provide to the organization who transforms the raw material to
final/ finished product.*
**
*Here it is "Supplier Property" instead of Customer property.*
**
*Now let me give an example of Customer property as follows:*
**
*In a Garment Manufacturing Organization, if the customer " Wal Mart"
provides the Organization with fabrics, sketches, design to assist them to
make the final product then its customer property, it can be taken back
after certain time or may not be taken by the customer. Now supplier here
will be the NOMINATED FABRIC SUPPLIER OF WALMART the Original CUSTOMER for
that company.*
 Now we have to understand the basic definition of Customers & its
characterstics.
 As the clause 7.5.3 says Identification & Traceabilty. However 7.5.4 says
customer property where it says: " *The Organization shall excercise care
with customer property while it is under the organization's control or being
used by the organization. The organization shall identify, verify, protect
and safeguard customer property provided for use or incorporation into the
product. If any customer property is lost, damaged or otherwise found to be
unsuitable for use, this shall be reported to the customer and records
maintained.*
**
*NOTE: Customer property can include intellectual property.*
**
*I hope I tried to answer to your query.*
**
*As far as Chirs, CQA, Bizmanuals answers *
**
*I totally agree with him but again if loan is your business function to
facilitate the Farmers then they are not your Customers unless you are a
financial institution. So, I cannot conclude that there are two processes.
Focus on the core business function which will be the Scope of Certfication.
*
**
*If on the controrary your are a financial institution and giving loan to
the supplier then I have no problem. It really depends on the business
function. Its advisable not to make processess complicated.*
**
*Thank you*
**
*Sheikh Mohsin Ali*


Our Contract farmers supply us the products (poultry, raw honey, mushroom)
for processing or sell directly to the market. They are our partners in
production. But at the same time we provide them loan and kept thier land
title(customer property) as collateral. We deduct thier loan via sales of
thier products, and we kept 5-10% of thier income in financial institution
as compulsary saving. We kept thier bank pass book(customer property).

(a) Can they also considered as customer, thereby providing processes as
required by 7.5.3?

(b) What are the practical ways to distinguish between customer and
supplier?

Thanks.

Rainal Lasumin.
Sabah.Malaysia.