TL 9000 Product Category Tables
The Product Category Tables are Appendix A of the TL 9000 Measurements Handbook.
The Product Category Tables define a standard set of categories for the reporting of TL 9000 data. As the TL 9000 standard is adopted in more departments of telecom service providers and in the supply chain, it isfrequently necessary to update these tables to include additional products. The tables are updated every 9-12 months, each update is approved by the QuEST Forum membership, and becomes part of the TL 9000 standard.
Each update is assigned a release number and is effective for a fixed period of time. The effective date applies to the date of the data being submitted and not the date of the data submission. For example, if a data submission is made in February 2008 for December 2007 data, the data submission is made under the definitions contained in Product Category Table 4.0 because Product Category Table 4.1 isn't effective until January 2008 data.
When a new product category table is released, TL 9000 registrants have six months to implement the rules in the new table. They can also use the table immediately on release which means that there are two tables in effect over the six months period.
New releases usually do not impact existing registrations and their data submissions. Even though the product category classifications are relatively static, product category definitions do sometime change so TL 9000 registrants should carefully examine each new release to see if the changes impact their registration. Each release is accompanied by a short paper describing the changes from the prior release of the tables.
See the table below to choose the product category table release that applies to your data. Note that data older than two years is not submitted nor resubmitted under TL 9000 so product category tables older than two years are obsolete and cannot be used.
NOTE: When two product category table releases are valid for data submission, data is submitted under only one of the product category table releases. The system will not allow data to be submitted under both releases. As soon as data is submitted under the newest release the older release is no longer available to use with new data submissions.
| Release | Earliest Date of Data | Latest Date of Data | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Product Category Table Release 4.2
(PDF,882KB)
Change History for PCT 4.2 (PDF,256KB) |
April 2010 | Not assigned | In use |
| Product Category Table Release 4.1
(PDF,605KB)
Change History for PCT 4.1 (PDF,24KB) |
January 2008 | September 2010 | In use |
| Product Category Table Release 4.0
(PDF,567KB)
Change History for PCT 4.0 (PDF,25KB) |
January 2007 | June 2008 | In use |
| Product Category Table Release 3.8
(PDF,563KB)
Change History for PCT 3.8 (PDF,26KB) |
April 2006 | June 2007 | Obsolete |
| Product Category Table Release 3.7
(PDF,543KB)
Change History for PCT 3.7 (PDF,26KB) |
April 2005 | September 2006 | Obsolete |
| Product Category Table Release 3.6 (PDF, 349KB) | April 2004 | September 2005 | Obsolete |
| Product Category Table Release 3.5 (PDF, 226KB) | April 2003 | June 2004 | Obsolete |
| Product Category Table Release 3.2 (PDF, 306KB) | July 2002 | June 2003 | Obsolete |
| Product Category Table Release 3.1 (PDF, 977KB) | October 2001 | September 2002 | Obsolete |
| Product Category Table Release 3.0 (PDF, 304KB) | March 2001 | December 2001 | Obsolete |
| Product Category Table Release 2.5 (PDF, 925KB) | January 2000 | June 2001 | Obsolete |
