Stephen, I'm sure each document would specify a different retention requirement. In the old MIL-Spec day's I believe it was 7 years...I don't believe IPC documents address retention periods other than agreed upon requirements between supplier and customer, this is also in-line with current ISO documents. Basically you would establish your own guidelines with the clause that customer specific requirements would supersede your own internal requirements. For example, you set up an internal requirement to toss out all records in let's say 2 years. Your new customer wants you to maintain those records for not less than 5 years, so you add the quite useful 'weasel-sentence' "...unless otherwise specified in contractual documents" Hope this helps... Franklin --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Technet Mail List provided as a free service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8d To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF Technet Search previous postings at: www.ipc.org > On-Line Resources & Databases > E-mail Archives Please visit IPC web site (http://www.ipc.org/html/forum.htm) for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-509-9700 ext.5315 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------