Clause 8 Operation
8.6 Release of products and services
Clause Criteria
The organization shall implement planned arrangements, at appropriate stages, to verify that the product and service requirements have been met.
The release of products and services to the customer shall not proceed until the planned arrangements have been satisfactorily completed, unless otherwise approved by a relevant authority and, as applicable, by the customer.
The organization shall retain documented information on the release of products and services. The documented information shall include:
a) evidence of conformity with the acceptance criteria;
b) traceability to the person(s) authorizing the release.
Explanation
The simplicity of this criteria is that the organization needs to respond formally, in a level of detail proportionate to the complexity of the process activities.
How the organization applies production controls, such as; inspections, validations, testing, etc., throughout its operations will provide for the controls necessary for the release of products and services.
This aspect should be informed by the requirements of operational processes, established KPI's, contractual arrangements, regulation, etc. In process validations can provide evidence of conformity to customer requirements. Appropriate controls need to be determined so that effective monitoring can take place to manage this aspect effectively.
Chief Explainer:
Phil Byrne