RUSAL pays great attention to the mutually beneficial partnership with its suppliers. The Company aims for long-term cooperation, which is the basis for success in business; cooperation, which is based on the fulfillment by suppliers of RUSAL's requirements and expectations.
To verify compliance with the Company's requirements and expectations, RUSAL has introduced a supplier QMS development system.
1 General conditions
RUSAL has obligations to its customers to ensure the quality of its products and guarantees the fulfillment of these obligations only in case of working with reliable Suppliers.
RUSAL is committed to long-term cooperation with its Suppliers of Purchased Goods, which is the basis for its business success and is based on the Suppliers' compliance with the requirements and expectations of RUSAL as set out in this document.
These requirements are established for RUSAL's suppliers, the fulfillment of which is the basis for the successful certification of the Supplier and its designation as an "Approved Supplier".
RUSAL applies five key indicators to assess the products purchased, the importance and priority of which are expressed in the following order:
- Quality of products
- Price
- Procurement conditions
- Payment conditions
- Volume of procurement
RUSAL supports the Supplier's initiatives in continuous improvement of production and business processes aimed at improving product quality, reducing production costs, strengthening and developing customer relations.
The provisions of this document cover all types of goods ("Products") supplied by the Supplier to RUSAL.
2 Zero Defects Strategy
The ZERO DEFECTIVE strategy must be applied to all of the Company's Suppliers (all products supplied must meet the requirements of contracts and regulations) and the principles of continuous improvement in quality management.
3 Requirements to the QMS of suppliers and subsuppliers
RUSAL expects its suppliers to implement a Quality Management System (QMS) in accordance with international standards (ISO 9001 and/or ISO/TS 16949), the QMS is maintained and subject to continuous improvement.
Certificate of the QMS availability and functioning shall be confirmed by a certificate of the certification body.
RUSAL also expects that when creating new products (or modernising production), Suppliers apply procedures such as FMEA, APQP, SPC, MSA, PPAP.
In addition, the Supplier is obligated to comply with product quality requirements set to the Company by its customers.
The quality of the final product depends on the quality of its components, therefore:
- to the same extent as RUSAL interacts with its Suppliers, the Supplier must interact with the Subsupplier;
- the same requirements that RUSAL places on the Supplier should be communicated to the Subsupplier.
- The Supplier shall ensure that its Subsuppliers also comply with the requirements of ISO 9001 (and/or ISO/TS 16949) and shall continuously improve its own quality management system.
4 Audits
In order to confirm that the QMS meets RUSAL's requirements, the Supplier organises audits (of a system, process or product) at manufacturing enterprises. The audits are conducted on the basis of prior notification of the Supplier.
The Supplier provides RUSAL with access to all production processes, warehousing and auxiliary subdivisions and quality documents.
In case of discrepancies related to the quality of the products supplied, the Supplier is also obliged to ensure that audits can be carried out at the enterprises of its subsuppliers.
Upon completion of the audit, RUSAL notifies the Supplier of the audit results. If any corrective actions are necessary, the Supplier undertakes to draw up a plan of measures, ensure implementation of the plan and monitoring of the efficiency of implementation of the measures, and notify the Company of the results of corrective actions.
5 Production
The supplier must clearly define, fully understand and formulate product and process requirements in order to meet RUSAL's requirements and expectations. The Supplier must have all the technology and equipment required for the planned production of the products.
The Supplier must have and comply with the approved production plan. On the basis of the general plan, production plans for the structural units should be developed and communicated to the contractors. The consumer should be informed in due time about any situations which can lead to non-observance of rhythmical deliveries of production.
The supplier should apply the complex approach at the organisation of manufacture. It is necessary to develop methods for an estimation of productivity and efficiency of existing operations. These requirements should be focused on the basic principles of lean production (Lean production).
Production planning should take into account the optimization of material transportation, loading and unloading operations and the use of available space.
Planning for the measurement and testing process should be carried out in such a way that all special product characteristics can be quantified in order to provide a statistical basis for the management of the reproduction process.
The measurement methods should be agreed with RUSAL, in particular, the supplier's acceptance inspection and input inspection methods at RUSAL.
Packaging of products intended for transportation, storage and ensuring the compatibility of packaging with loading equipment is determined by RUSAL together with the supplier at the delivery planning stage.
During industrial deliveries any deviations related to the organisation of deliveries must be agreed in written form with RUSAL.
6 Infrastructure
The Supplier's main equipment and process equipment shall be in good working order. The Supplier shall develop a system of preventive maintenance of equipment. It is necessary to determine the optimal service intervals of process equipment, failure of which can lead to failure of delivery or quality reduction, to determine the strategy of prevention of delivery failures due to equipment failure.
Suppliers should minimize risks and be as independent as possible from city (municipal) or third-party supply services.
7 HR management
The supplier's facility must have an approved management structure in place. The management must ensure that responsibility and authority are clearly defined and communicated to the personnel.
The duties and responsibilities of officials must be documented (job duties, instructions, employment contracts).
Planning for staff training requires the supplier to conduct an analysis of actual staff qualifications. Priorities for selecting training areas must focus on upgrading skills, acquiring knowledge about quality and the production system, including tools such as FMEA, APQP, SPC, MSA, PPAP, Lean production, TPM, etc., and their application.
The supplier guarantees that the necessary professional skills are available and that the personnel involved in all stages of production are properly qualified.
8 Management of nonconforming products
In order to prevent unintentional use or delivery of non-compliant products, the Supplier shall ensure that such products are identified and isolated from suitable products. The supplier shall deal with non-conforming products in the following ways:
- take action to prevent their initial intended use or application;
- take actions to eliminate the detected non-conformity and its cause;
- authorize its use, release or acceptance if RUSAL confirms the authorization to deviate from the requirements.
Records of the nature of discrepancies and any actions taken should be kept up to date.
The supplier should analyze the non-conformities identified during the production process and with the consumer, identify the root causes of such non-conformities, and develop corrective actions to prevent the occurrence of non-conformities. Records based on the results of the analysis and the actions taken should be retained and sent to RUSAL.
9 Informing
The Supplier shall inform RUSAL in advance (without further requests) of any changes in its production process, raw materials and supplies, the places of production, changes in counteragents, as well as changes in procedures or equipment for product testing or other quality assurance measures to enable RUSAL to verify the impact that such changes may have on the production process.
In the event of any reorganisation of the Supplier which may affect the structure of the organisation, the Supplier shall audit the integrity of the quality management system and report the results of the audit and the performance of the QMS to RUSAL.
10 Claims, measures
If the Supplier has deviations in the quality of a process or product, the Supplier shall analyze the reasons, develop and implement corrective actions, and conduct a performance analysis of these actions.
If deviations in product quality are detected, they will be reported to the Supplier in accordance with the contract (agreement). In this case the Supplier shall immediately analyze the reasons for delivery of non-compliant products and provide a guaranteed date of delivery of products complying with RUSAL's requirements.
In the event of a dispute, joint acceptance of products or the involvement of a representative of the public shall be carried out.
In the event of delivery of non-conforming products which cause production stoppages at RUSAL's plant (s) or its consumers, the Supplier shall take immediate corrective measures at its own expense and in agreement with RUSAL (processing organisation, express delivery, etc.).
Unless otherwise agreed by the parties, RUSAL has the right to claim compensation from the Supplier for losses related to the delivery of non-compliant products (including claims from RUSAL's customers).
Other (more specific) claims to the Suppliers are specified in delivery contracts.