How to manage product changes after supplier approval

An approved drawing can become obsolete when a material, component or process changes. The directory may still display the old specification even as production moves on.

What the primary source can establish

The U.S. International Trade Administration due diligence guide is the first-party reference for this guide. The guide separates country, company or partner, and purchasing risks and calls for continuing due diligence. It does not investigate or endorse any named supplier on Source Ledger. The steps below are our editorial method for making a buyer-facing field more precise.

A field-level check

Keep a revision identifier for the approved product, the date of agreement and the change-notice contact. Ask how the supplier proposes, approves and records deviations. Link test evidence to the version actually tested.

Write down the exact field, the party that supplied the information, the original document or page, the date seen and the scope of the check. If a reviewer took an action, record that action rather than a general “verified” label. Reopen the source when the transaction or underlying document changes.

Where the inference stops

Do not carry a test result from one revision onto a changed product without assessing what changed. A silent update to a web catalogue should trigger a new check for consequential fields.

A missing answer is a question to resolve, not permission to substitute a guess. Separate a statement by the supplier from a public record and from a documented human review. No source in this article proves a quality ranking or an existing buyer relationship.

What to record before deciding

Make revision history part of the evidence record and flag a material change for buyer review. Remove old conformity wording if the supporting test no longer matches the shipped version.

This entry describes how to evaluate evidence. It is not a dossier for a real company, an approval decision or a substitute for transaction-specific professional review.

Common question

Can a newer product revision inherit all earlier evidence?

Only after someone assesses whether the change affects the evidence scope and records that judgement.

Related guide

Continue with How to make a supplier's product scope a checkable field for another field-level check.