Management system guidance
8.5 Production and service provision
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8.5.3 Property belonging to customers or external providers
This requirement is unchanged in substance in ISO 9001:2026. It goes back to ISO 9001:2008 Clause 7.5.4 – Customer Property, which ISO 9001:2015 expanded to cover property belonging to external providers that is used by your organization or incorporated into its own products and services.
You should seek and record evidence that your organization has extended its treatment of customer property to include that of external providers. If you need a procedure and forms to help control your business's product and service provision process, click here.
Check that your organization communicates with its customers in regard to the handling and treatment of their property. You should also check that contingency plans and, where relevant, actions are undertaken when non-conformities occur with customer property. Good sources of information often include the following examples:
- Goods returned by the customer;
- Warranty claims;
- Revised invoices;
- Credit notes;
- Articles in the media;
- Consumer websites;
- Direct observation of, or communication with, the customer.
The note to the clause gives examples of such property: materials, components, tools and equipment, premises, intellectual property and personal data. This note is not new, but it is a useful reminder that customer drawings, designs, software and personal information you handle on a customer’s behalf need the same care as physical items.
If there are any products, materials, tools or information in your organization's control that are owned by a customer or external provider, all employees must exercise care with this property while it is under your control or being used by you. This means they must ensure that it is not lost, damaged or misused.
If property belonging to a customer or external provider is lost or damaged, or turns out to be unsuitable for use, the owner needs to be told, and documented information must be available as evidence of what has occurred. Establish and implement a process to identify, verify, protect and safeguard property supplied by customers and external providers:
- Establish the identity and status of customer or external provider property;
- Maintaining records.
The auditor will expect to see that the organization has clearly identified any and all customer property. The auditor will verify that the organization has established a process to protect customer property. Further a process must be established for contacting the customer when these items are lost, damaged or otherwise found unsuitable for the process.
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