Is a supplied drawing the same as a loaned drawing?

In practice, usually yes — the terms differ but both describe a drawing the customer owns and has entrusted to you for production. What matters is not the label but three facts: ownership stays with them, use outside the stated purpose is not permitted, and there may be an obligation to return or destroy it after the contract ends. Confirm those three on receipt.

How should drawing revisions be controlled?

Record the revision on receipt, and put the receipt date and revision on every copy that circulates internally. When a revised drawing arrives, either collect the old one or mark it superseded so it cannot stay on the floor. Without revision control you get the most expensive failure there is: building an entire batch to the wrong revision.

Do supplied drawings need a confidentiality agreement?

They should have one. Drawings carry design know-how and are normally covered by an NDA. If one is signed, record the agreement number and date against the receipt. If a drawing arrives before anything is signed, get it signed before you start, or at minimum confirm the handling terms in writing. If you plan to subcontract any of the work, check whether that is permitted too.

What happens to the drawing when the job is finished?

Whatever the contract says. Return or destruction may be required, and sometimes certification that it was destroyed. At the same time, product liability argues for keeping manufacturing records for a period, so the return obligation and the need to retain can conflict. Settle this when you take the order, and record what was agreed.

Twelve Checks When a Customer Drawing Arrives

Hello, this is Ryuta Hamamoto from TIMEWELL.

An order comes in and a drawing arrives with it. An email attachment, a link to a shared folder, paper, occasionally a fax. A surprising number of shops push that drawing straight to the floor.

Then the familiar failures happen. Building to a superseded revision and scrapping the whole batch. Working around an instruction nobody could read, and being told at delivery that it is wrong. Realising after the job closes that the drawing had to be returned. Subcontracting a process that the contract did not allow.

All of them are preventable in the few minutes after the drawing lands. This piece lists twelve things to check between receipt and start. There is a receipt register at the end.

The short version:

The most expensive failure is building to the wrong revision. Recording it on receipt prevents it
A supplied drawing is owned by the customer. Use and subcontracting are limited
A return or destruction obligation can conflict with the need to retain manufacturing records
Anything unreadable or unclear, ask before you start. Asking afterwards puts you in a worse position

Twelve checks

First, the drawing itself (1–5)

1. Drawing number and revision. The critical one. If a drawing arrives without a revision mark, confirm that it is current. "Same as last time" still needs checking against your record of what last time was.

2. Receipt date and route. When and from where. Email means sender and timestamp; a shared folder means the download time. This is what settles a later "we sent it" / "we never got it."

3. Is everything there? Assembly drawing but no part drawings, items on the BOM with no drawing, a missing section reference. Reconcile the sheet count against the list of drawing numbers.

4. Is it legible? A scan too coarse to read a dimension, a faxed print that has filled in, a PDF at insufficient resolution. Do not proceed with something you cannot read. Interpret it and build, and the interpretation becomes your responsibility.

5. Is every instruction understood? Unusual symbols, references to the customer's internal standards, notes that do not parse. Do not run on "it probably means this."

Then, whether the job stands up (6–9)

6. Can you make it? Is the geometry within your equipment's capability? If not, do you subcontract, decline, or propose an alternative? Discovering this after you accept narrows your options.

7. Can you buy it? Is the specified material available? Any special or discontinued items? Is the lead time predictable?

8. Can you measure it? Can you or your supplier measure the specified tolerances? If an inspection report is required and you cannot take the measurement, you cannot ship.

9. Are quantity, date, and supplied-item terms clear? These sit outside the drawing. Start with them vague and they will move later. What to line up at the RFQ stage is in writing an RFQ for machined parts.

Last, rights and obligations (10–12)

10. Confidentiality status. Is an NDA in place? If so, record the agreement number and date. Drawings arriving before anything is signed is common. In that case, get it signed before you start, or at least confirm the handling terms in writing.

11. Can you subcontract? If any operation goes outside, is that permitted? NDAs frequently prohibit subcontracting or make it subject to prior consent. Sending work to a heat treater or plater is routine, but contractually it can constitute disclosure to a third party.

12. Return or destruction. After the contract ends, do you return it, destroy it, or certify destruction? Confirm this on receipt or it becomes a problem later.

Building to the wrong revision costs the most

Of the twelve, revision control stands out on damage.

Build to a superseded revision and the whole batch is remade. You lose the material, the machine hours, and possibly the delivery date. And when the question becomes "why did you build to the old revision," an absence of receipt records makes it your control failure. Even if the customer never sent the revision, not being able to show that gets you to the same place.

The prevention is simple.

Record the revision on receipt. One line in a register.

Put the receipt date and revision on every copy that circulates internally, including the ones that go to the floor.

When a revision arrives, collect the old one or mark it superseded. Skip this and two revisions sit on the floor together. Someone will pick up the older one.

On paper, a diagonal line and the word "superseded" is enough to work. Electronically, move the old file to a separate folder and put "superseded" in the filename. A mark anyone can read at a glance beats a perfect system on a shop floor.

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Return obligations and record retention collide

This is where practice gets stuck.

NDAs often carry a clause requiring drawings to be returned or destroyed after termination, with certification. At the same time, for products you manufactured, product liability argues for keeping design and manufacturing records for a period. Japan's Product Liability Act extinguishes claims ten years after delivery, but there is a separate five-year limb running from the injured party's discovery in personal injury cases¹.

Which means you can find yourself with nothing in hand, being asked ten years later what the specification of that part was.

The only real fix is deciding at order intake. The usual settlement:

Return the drawing, but keep your own manufacturing records — inspection results, process records, material lot numbers
Where the drawing itself must be retained, write that into the contract
Where certification of destruction is required, state what was destroyed and what was kept

Either way, avoid drifting into "we probably do not have to throw these out" and holding them indefinitely. That is quietly retaining something you were lent.

The full retention picture is in how long to keep drawings.

Ask before you start

Finally, the obvious thing that does not happen.

If you cannot read it, cannot follow it, or want to confirm something, ask before you start.

Before starting, "could you confirm this for me" is a normal exchange. After starting, it becomes "why are you asking now." At delivery it becomes "why did you build it that way." The same question lands completely differently depending on when you ask it.

And record what you asked and what came back. Ask by email and get the answer by email. If it happened on the phone, send a summary and get it confirmed. Verbal agreements evaporate.

A "queries" column on the receipt register makes this happen naturally.

The receipt register

There is a supplied drawing receipt register covering these twelve points: drawing number, revision, receipt date, receipt route, confidentiality status, subcontracting permission, return or destruction category, queries and answers, and an approval block.

It includes a field for recording what happened to the old revision when a revision arrives. It presents cleanly when a customer quality audit asks about drawing control. The download link is at the end of this article.

Keeping received drawings findable

A word on where our product fits.

Keeping the register is an Excel job. What matters is the habit, not the system: add a line on every receipt and you have achieved most of the point.

Where our enterprise AI, ZEROCK, comes in is afterwards. Once the register and the drawings pile up, finding things gets hard. "That customer's similar part from last year." "What did we check last time this material came with this tolerance?" Searches you cannot run on a drawing number.

Being able to query past receipts and queries across the archive means you do not ask the same question twice. Customers notice that.

There is more on drawing management in drawing management, PLM and PDM and on rights in drawings, AI, and the trade secret boundary.

In summary

Run twelve checks between receipt and start
The costliest failure is the wrong revision. Record it on receipt and collect the old one
A supplied drawing is owned by the customer. Use and subcontracting are limited
Return obligations and record retention can collide. Settle it at order intake
Unreadable or unclear means ask before you start, and record the answer
Excel is fine for the register. Once it fills up, make it searchable

For drawing receipt control, or making past records retrievable, get in touch.

References

Product Liability Act (Act No. 85 of 1994), Article 5 (e-Gov, Japanese). A claim is extinguished three years after the injured party learns of the damage and the liable party (five years where life or body is harmed), or ten years after the manufacturer delivered the product ↩

This article was produced with the help of AI. A human verified the primary sources and edited the text before publication.

Twelve Checks When a Customer Drawing Arrives