1. Rationalization and simplification of renewal of registration ... - rdso

1. Rationalization and simplification of renewal of registration
process:
To overcome certain shortcomings observed in the renewal of registration process
viz:
I. Good firms temporarily delisted since firms fail to apply for renewal by oversight
within the expiry of validity of registration.
II. The renewal process being a time consuming since the process of renewal is
almost similar to fresh registration process.
III. No in built system to assess the performance of the firm with reference to
warranty failures/in service failures/joints inspection, audit observations etc.
IV. Repeated applications for similar items, resulting in duplication of activities like
STR verification capacity assessment etc.
QA (Mech) Directorate has simplified renewal of registration process.
Silent features of the simplified process are :
a) Extension of validity of approved firms become an internal activity of Dte,where
firms need not apply for renewal of registration.
b) Annual calendar of renewal of registration is prepared for the year and Zonal
offices are informed well in advance to take up renewal of registration of firms as
per the scheduled calendar.
c) Zonal office conducts renewal audit in the firms premises, advising the firms in
advance and obtaining the self appraisal of its performance in the standard
format.
d) The self appraisal report of the firm and assessment report of renewal audit are
submitted in scientifically developed standard format QM-F-7.1-11.
e) In the revised procedure, visit of RDSO official is limited to assessment and
sample testing reducing the time consumed for renewal.
f) Items are grouped into major sub-groups like Air brake items,Metal bonded
rubber items, Nylon/Acetal items, Forgings items etc.and renewal of each group
is undertaken in a particular calendar month facilitating easy assessment and

comparison. Similarly other items of a firms belonging to a same sub group are
renewed at once avoiding multiple visits.
The following improvements are effected by processing renewal in standard format,
since required fields are inbuilt:
Uniformity in the assessment of different firms.
All the performance indices like warranty failures, in-service failures, joints
inspection including corrective and preventive action are properly reviewed
during renewal without any omissions.
Variations in STR are identified during audit and reviewed thoroughly
Charges in QAP are reviewed and audited.
Compliance of Quality audit observations are reviewed.
(Quality of assessment improvement due to formation of assessment criteria.)
2 Formatting of Quality Assurance Plan
Preparation and submission of QAP by the firm is an important activity of the vendor
registration. Firms prepare and submit QAP in their own style differing largely from
one firm to other dealing similar items making it difficult to scrutinize the QAP by
RDSO official.
Normally the shortcomings observed are:
i) Quality Assurance Plan submitted by firms shall contain the following important
requirements of RDSO specially mentioned in Specification/STR of the product.
Qualification and experience of the personnel to be displayed for various
activities of manufacture/testing.
Details of manufacturing and testing process being followed.
Calibration of testing equipment and its frequency.
However, due to lack of trained officials, lot of omissions are taken place during
submission/verification of QAP submitted by firms and as a result some important
criteria envisaged in specification are not included.
ii) New vendors particularly small scale industries face lot of difficulty to prepare
QAP and sometimes feel harassed due to lack of understanding of provisions of
Specn./STR while preparing QAP.
iii) In every stage of verification, some modification are suggested by RDSO in the
QSP submitted by firms, Since there may be minor variations in the scrutiny
process by RDSO officials scrutinizing the QAP, it is one of the main reason for
delay in fresh registration of cases.

iv) Complaints received by the firms or RDSO about approved products are not
properly connected and no proper records are maintained.
v) Outsourcing of sub-assemblies/components is not properly identified and also
the activities carried out in the ancillary works/additional works is not clearly
brought out.
vi) Internal inspection from raw material to in process/final inspection is not properly
brought out by the firms in their QAP.
To overcome these shortcomings and to facilitate easy preparation and scrutiny of
QAP, QA(Mech) Dte has developed a standard format for preparation of QAP, dividing
into different sections. The following are the different sections of QAP format (QM-RF
7.1-3) and brief subjects dealt in the section are furnished below:-
SECTION A: ORGANISATION CHART
SECTION B: QUALIFICATION/ EXPERIENCE OF QC PERSONNEL
Part I : Details of qualification/ experience of the quality control personnel
specified in the STR/ Specification of RDSO of the items applied for approval/
renewal.
Part II : Qualification of other key personnel and the officials deployed in Quality
Control Cell.
SECTION C: PROCESS FLOW CHART/ DESCRIPTION OF MANUFACTURING
PROCESS
Part I: Process Flow Chart indicating process of manufacture for an individual
product, with quality control points.
Part II: Brief description of different manufacturing process mentioned in flow
chart:
a) Details of the manufacturing & testing process specially mentioned
in the specification.
b) Brief details of the other manufacturing process.
Part III: Brief description of ancillaries & additional units (if any):
SECTION D: DETAILS OF SUB-ASSEMBLIES/ COMPONENTS MANUFACTURED
IN-HOUSE AND OUTSOURCED.
Part I: Details of in-house manufactured (Components/ sub-assemblies)
Part II: Details of components/Sub-assemblies purchased from RDSO approved
primary/ sublet vendors.

Part III: Details of items outsourced from other than RDSO approved items.
SECTION E: INCOMING RAW MATERIAL & INPROCESS/ FINAL INSPECTION
Stage inspection detailing inspection procedure, inspection parameters, method of
testing/ test procedure including sample sizes for destructive and non- destructive
testing etc.
Part I: Incoming raw materials/ parts/ sub-assemblies.
Part II: In process inspection (of the product)
Part III: Final internal inspection of the product by the firm.
SECTION F: CALIBRATION OF TESTING MEASURING EQUIPMENT
Part I: Inhouse Testing facilities available for calibration with the firm.
Part II: Personnel trained for inhouse calibration.
Part III: Calibration plan for the items identified for specified calibration in
STR/Specification.
Part IV: Calibration plan for other measuring equipment.
SECTION G: SYSTEM OF MAINTAINING THE DATE OF CUSTOMER COMPLAINTS/
WARRANTY FAILURES
Warranty failures/ In-service failures reported from customers.
*The firm shall maintain a complaint register in the above format and the
summary required to be given during renewal
SECTION H : ANY ADDITIONAL INFORMATION FIRM WISH TO SUBMIT
The firm can furnish any other information which they wish to submit on items other
than furnished in annexure A to F.

3 Improvement in Vendor Directory
i) Improvements in the vendor directory published by QA(Mech) Dte.
a) The items published have been segregated directorate-wise to facilitate
easy identification of controlling directorate and also address, Fax
number of ED of the directorate is published.
b) The designation of the Director who co-ordinate the vendor approval of
the item is indicated, against the item in the index and also the cell no.
, e-mail & fax no. of the co-coordinating director is furnished in the
beginning of the vendor directory to facilitate the field unit as well as
vendors seeking registration to access the controlling director easily.
ii) On line updation of vendor directory
Vendor directory is published once in six months and subsequent changes
in the vendor directory in a month are published in the 1 st week of next month as an
amendment. Scanned copies of amendment are uploaded in the website and hard
copies are sent to zonal Railways by fax/post. Zonal railways are informed about the
changes in vendor directory almost one month after the change occurred and
sometimes it is possible that a delisted firm may get an order in this period due to late
communication. To address the problem QA mech dte. Introduced a system
improvement of online updating the status of the firm, soon after the firm approved/
delisted or any change in the vendor status, in the RDSO website by developing
software. In this system, whenever a firm is delisted, the name of the firm shown in red
colour and the date of delisting also indicated. If a vendor is freshly approved for an
item, the name of the firm is added to the list of existing approved sources in Part II in
green colour and also the date of approval indicated. Similarly the names of the firms
are up-gradation/ down-gradation is also changed with a distinct colour coding along
with date of change. By introduction of the system improvement, not only the field units
aware of the change in vendor directory promptly but also can easily identify changes
through colour contrast. Presently this format of Vendor directory is on trial.

4. Introduction of hologram for Product Identification
To facilitate identification of inspected product, a full proof
system has been introduced. A small (15mm X 15mm) size Golden
glare Hologram having unique numbering system, security code at two
locations, a Government of India emblem and RDSO letters on it has
been developed which shall facilitate users to identify all the individual items inspected
by QA(Mech) Dte. In case of small items it is pasted on packet. Hologram shall also
prevent any mixing up of material at vendors’ premises. The holograms shall facilitate
traceability of the details of inspected materials, as all the holograms are individually
numbered.
5. Online vendor registration:
To bring in total transparency in vendor registration at RDSO, a system of
‘online vendor registration’ has been successfully implemented. The system includes
online payment through RTGS. To facilitate ‘online registration’ all the drawings,
specifications & STRs are uploaded on website & are available after payment of
charges through RTGS. Besides online registration monitoring of vendor approval
status is also available online. System shall facilitate submission of documents,
clarification etc resulting in faster communication.
6. Vendor Feedback/ Complaints:
To facilitate the vendors to submit their feedback & also submit complaints/
clarifications, online provision has been made on ( www.rdso.indianrailways.gov.in)
website. At the back end system has been introduced to address the querries/
clarifications by concerned Dtes.