a. Your customer hands you three different design packages for one PCB; one version in Gerber and two versions in CAM350 (one is for manufacturing and the other is a previous revision for reference only) and tells you that the GERBER and CAM350 versions are the same and to release the requirement to manufacturing. What do you do? That has happened numerous times here, we get written confirmation detailing the risk involved in using the incorrect set of data before proceeding... b. Your customer then tells you to ignore the Gerber version, and instructs you to use the CAM350 version only and to release to manufacturing immediately (because of the time lost in matter outlined in item #a). When asked, "but we might have design related questions that need clarification......", the customer responds with "There should be no questions, this has been manufactured many times with no problems......"What do you do? Again, get written confirmation including detailing the risk involved in using the incorrect set od data. c. We did number #2, and problems were found with the design. Our customer then proceeded to inform us of our engineering incompetence and asked why we didn't compare the previous revision (the CAM350 file that was marked for reference only) to the current revision because all the "answers" are there. What do you do? You kick yourself in the butt for not getting written confirmation detailing the risks associated with using the incorrect set of data... d. Our stated leadtime was X after all engineering questions have been answered and production A/W has been approved; our "incompetence" lead to a missed delivery (but product was delivered within stated leadtime after all prestated conditions were met). What do you? Same as e. above e. The total value of the purchase order is 3200 (Production + Tooling); your customer wants a penalty of 9000 (the cost of quickturn boards to make up for our incompetence) + FREE PCB's + FREE TOOLING + FREE TRANSPORTATION. What do you do? Implement a procedure for obtaining prior written approval on design conditions that may be risky (like multiple choice data sets) and follow it, pay the money, and take them off your Approved Customer List... Rule 32 in Franklin's School of Sound Business Practice "A customer is always right when you do not have proper documentation..." Hope this helps... Franklin --------------------------------------------------- Technet Mail List provided as a service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8e To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF Technet To temporarily halt or (re-start) delivery of Technet send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet NOMAIL or (MAIL) To receive ONE mailing per day of all the posts: send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet Digest Search the archives of previous posts at: http://listserv.ipc.org/archives Please visit IPC web site http://www.ipc.org/contentpage.asp?Pageid=4.3.16 for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-509-9700 ext.5315 -----------------------------------------------------