External NCR

External NCR commonly refers to an external nonconformance report: a formal record of a product, process, documentation, or service nonconformance that involves an organization outside the manufacturer’s internal operations. In manufacturing, it is most often used when a customer issues an NCR to a supplier, or when a manufacturer issues an NCR to an external supplier for received material or outsourced work.

An External NCR documents what was found, where it was detected, the affected part, lot, order, or shipment, and the required response path. It may support containment, disposition, correction, root cause analysis, corrective action, and communication between customer and supplier systems.

External NCR should not be confused with an internal NCR, which is raised and managed within the same organization. It is also different from a corrective action request, although an External NCR may lead to a SCAR, CAPA, 8D, or other corrective action workflow depending on the quality system and customer requirements.