General overview of 8D process

The general assumptions of the 8D process reduce the complaint process to filling in information at subsequent steps by selected individuals and to dedicated approval processes, namely:

IMPORTANT:

The steps mentioned above have strictly defined completion times, both for the supplier and the Buyer/QA. The default reaction times are shown in the table below:

In specific cases, these completion times can be manually adjusted by the Buyer/QA.

Complaint Process - Step by Step

EMAIL NOTIFICATION AND LOGGING INTO THE PLATFORM

Upon receiving an email notification about the creation of a new complaint, the supplier clicks on the link to be directed to the login screen of the Nextbuy platform.

After entering login and password, the supplier is taken to a view with a list of complaints that have been submitted to their company.

The view presents the complaints from newest to oldest. Another important piece of information on the list is the current status of the complaint, such as:

• D1 - new complaint. Steps D1 to D3 are awaiting completion by the supplier.
• Status color also matters:
  • Orange - the deadline for completing steps D1-D3 has not been exceeded.
  • Red - the deadline for completing steps has been exceeded.
  • Green - the steps have been accepted by the recipient.

CLAIM HEADER

By clicking on the complaint name, the supplier is taken to the detailed view of the submission. The header view is divided into 5 sections:

1. Basic Information - includes the reason for the complaint, the complaint number, and the relevant order number.
2. Claim Details - contains detailed information about the item/service being complained about, including the delivery date concerned.
3. Attachments - contains links to documents/photos attached by the QA team, showing the reason for the complaint.
4. Costs - if the complaint involves additional costs to the supplier, such information will be presented here.
5. Claim Deadlines - contains information about the deadlines for providing the necessary data for the steps in the complaint process.

IMPORTANT:

The information available in the complaint header is not editable by the supplier - it is for informational purposes only. To start the complaint process, the supplier must navigate to the D1 tab.

STEPS D1-D3 - Starting the Complaint Process

After navigating to the D1 tab, the supplier is asked to fill in the information about the team members who will participate in the complaint process from their side.

To start adding team members, click on the 'pencil' icon:

To add another team member, click on the '+' icon and fill in the required details such as:

• First Name
• Last Name
• Position
• Email
• Phone
• Department

To save the entered data, click on the green 'checkmark' icon.

After filling in all the personal details of the team members involved in the complaint process, the supplier should proceed to step D2.

To start entering data, similar to step D1, click on the 'pencil' icon.

The form is divided into four sections:

1. What? - The supplier should confirm which component/product/service the complaint pertains to.
2. Where? - The supplier should confirm the location related to the complaint.
3. When? - The supplier should indicate the date of the reported complaint.
4. How Big? - If the complaint is related to incorrect dimensions of the component.

After filling in the sections related to the complaint, the supplier should proceed to the form for step D3.

Step D3 contains three sections that the supplier should fill in concerning the conducted complaint:

1. Material at the owner's location
2. Material at the supplier's location
3. Material in transit

Entering data in all sections is mandatory - without this, the system will not allow submitting steps D1-D3 for approval by the Buyer/QA.

Important:

If no actions will be taken regarding a specific location/transit in the context of the conducted complaint, the section should be filled in with the following entries:

• Status - Select 'Not Applicable'
• Description - Manually enter 'Not Applicable'
• Completion Date - Leave the field blank
• Team Member - Leave the field blank

After correctly filling in the data, the supplier submits steps D1-D3 for approval by the Buyer/QA. To do this, click on the   button.

Now the process is awaiting approval by the Buyer/QA. If the person responsible for the complaint reviews the content of steps D1-D3 and approves them, the system will notify the supplier of the decision via email. The status of the complaint will be changed to , and the supplier can proceed to fill in steps D4-D5.

If the Buyer/QA decides to reject steps D1-D3 and request changes, the system will send such a notification to the supplier via email. The status of the complaint will be changed accordingly to .

A comment on the decision along with any possible attachments is now available for the Supplier by clicking the button and navigating to the 'History' tab and clicking on the 'paperclip' icon.

This window contains the comment on the Buyer/QA's decision and presents a list of attachments added to the decision.

After reviewing the content, the supplier should make the corrections indicated by the Buyer and resend steps D1-D3 for re-approval by clicking the  button again.