Non-Conformance

Non-conformance, also written nonconformity, means the non-fulfilment of a requirement. ISO/TC 176, the committee behind the ISO 9000 family of quality-management standards, uses this wording as its definition in its alphabetical listing of terms in TC 176 standards.

The requirement in question can come from several places. It may be set by a management-system standard, or adopted by an organization for its products, processes or agreements with interested parties, as ISO Annex SL describes. In Canadian federal procurement, the term appears in Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) assessment material, where it grades how well procurement rules were followed.

The ISO definition of nonconformity

ISO treats nonconformity as a common core term across its management-system standards. The definition is deliberately broad. A nonconformity is not limited to a faulty product. It can concern a process, a service, an agreement, a law or a rule within a management system. Whenever a stated requirement is not met, a nonconformity exists.

Non-conformance in contract and defence quality

In contract-quality work, the term usually points to an article, material, process or service that fails to meet requirements stated in a contract, drawing, specification or other approved document. The NASA handbook on nonconformance defines it as a condition in which one or more characteristics of an article, material, process or service do not conform to those documents. It includes failures, defects, anomalies and malfunctions, and it treats "discrepancy" and "noncompliance" as interchangeable terms.

Correction and corrective action

ISO guidance separates two responses to a nonconformity, and the two are not interchangeable. The ISO TC 176 guidance on reviewing nonconformity sets out the difference:

• Correction is action to eliminate a detected nonconformity.
• Corrective action is action to eliminate the cause of a nonconformity and prevent it from recurring.

Fixing a defective item is a correction. Changing the process that produced the defect is corrective action.

How PSPC uses non-conformance in the Centralized Professional Services System

PSPC applies the term to federal contracting activity under the Centralized Professional Services System (CPSS). Its CPSS assessor guidance recognizes three findings:

• Major non-conformance, policy: action or inaction by a contracting authority that contravenes the Treasury Board Directive on the Management of Procurement or federal or provincial legislation.
• Major non-conformance, procedural: improper use of the CPSS ePortal or a harmonized procurement tool where the impact on procurement integrity is serious, or where earlier findings were not effectively remedied.
• Minor non-conformance: action or inaction that contravenes the rules for using the CPSS ePortal or a harmonized procurement tool but does not meet the criteria for a major finding. PSPC's CPSS assessments page frames it the same way.

The guidance on bid solicitation preparation adds that significant discrepancies between the solicitation instructions and the instructions tied to the selected method of supply are a major procedural non-conformance. PSPC also reports findings against procurement elements. For specified element groups, a finding is reported once and not against each contract issued.

What non-conformance means for a supplier bidding on Canadian public contracts

The CPSS findings describe non-conformance by federal contracting authorities and procurement processes. They are not a supplier-specific contractual remedy. A supplier's actual obligations depend on the solicitation, the resulting contract, the statement of work, the specifications, the quality-assurance clauses and any inspection or acceptance provisions.

Bid teams should read those documents for the requirements they will be held to. When a requirement is not met, the general quality-management response follows ISO guidance:

• Identify and document the unmet requirement.
• Correct the immediate problem.
• Where the contract or quality system requires it, determine and eliminate the cause to prevent recurrence.

Suppliers should also recognize the CPSS terminology when it appears in assessment material, since it describes how the buyer's own process is judged.