release of products and services
The company implements planned arrangements, at appropriate stages, to verify that product and service requirements have been met. The release of products and services to their customers does not proceed until the planned arrangements have been satisfactorily completed, unless otherwise approved by a relevant authority, as applicable, or by the customer. The company retains documented information on the release of products and services. Documented information includes a) evidence of conformity with the acceptance criteria; b) traceability to the person(s) authorising the release.
A wonderfully succinct little clause and in the good old days when we used to make stuff, release of products either as work in progress or finished product was really important. There were quality controls, specifications, special process monitoring, non-destructive testing, destructive testing, colour matches, light box inspections, customer sign offs and oh so much more. And this equally applied to stuff coming into your factory as well. Quarantined stockpiles until tests were conducted, sample plans for qualifying a batch of million screws, paint drawdowns to determine colour, gloss, stickability, blah, blah.
This all still applies to any product or service today. You need to define specifications, expectations and final acceptance criteria, delivery requirements, warranty conditions, terms of payment, yarda, yarda. Then you need to provide evidence that this stuff was done. There is a requirement for retained documented information at release. This means you need to have records and records that demonstrate criteria and result. Then you need to be able to trace it to the person who accepted the release prior to giving it to the customer. Both internal and external customers. The good news is that you can craft a workflow that automatically meets this very prescriptive requirement and be very clever with electronic evidence.
Get creative and automate as much as you can and cover off any grey areas with contracts and terms.