LEDs Downloads Center

Building a document package that survives an audit

The files above are individual documents, but component enquiries and audits rarely ask for one file in isolation. They ask for a package that answers a chain of questions — what the part is, what it does, where it may be used, how it is handled, and what it complies with — and a package assembled in that order is far easier to defend than a folder of documents collected ad hoc.

The five elements of a complete component package

• Identity — the datasheet or selection table that fixes the model, its package and its parameter set.
• Performance evidence — test reports and reliability data covering the parameters the application depends on.
• Handling and process — storage conditions, soldering profile, packaging and MSDS information, which is what a production engineer actually needs.
• Compliance — RoHS, REACH and any qualification report the target market requires, current as of the shipment date.
• Change control — the revision record that shows which of the above are current and what changed.

Why revision discipline is the usual finding

Audits rarely fail on a missing document; they fail on a document that does not match the part received. A datasheet whose revision predates the shipment, a declaration superseded by a later issue, or an MSDS for a packaging format no longer used will each pull an otherwise complete package into question. The remedy is procedural rather than documentary: record, for every shipment or design release, which revision of each document applies, and re-check that record whenever a supplier notifies a change.

Finding the right file quickly

• Know the family first. The files above are grouped by product family and document type; identifying the family narrows the list before the model is known.
• Match the document type to the question. Specifications answer performance questions; reports answer evidence questions; declarations answer compliance questions.
• Check the date before the content. A current document is more useful than a comprehensive one.
• Ask with a named target. A request that names the model, the document type and the market is resolved in one pass.

Component documents versus lighting documents

Everything in this centre concerns LED devices: chips, packages and the engineering data around them. Luminaire-level documentation — photometric files, installation manuals and fixture specifications — is maintained separately in the lighting download centre, because it describes products that behave according to different rules and are specified in different quantities. If your enquiry is about a finished light source rather than a device, the lighting centre is the correct starting point.