Standards

• ISO/TS 16949: Automotive Quality (107 KB E-Brochure in PDF)

ISO/TS 16949

Overview

In late 2001, members of ISO/TC 176, the ISO Technical Committee in charge of Quality Assurance and Quality Management standards, voted 79% in favor of publishing the final draft of ISO/TS 16949:2002. With the minimum two-thirds majority received, the official publication of ISO/TS 16949:2002 took place as planned in March 2002.

The 20-element structure so familiar to users of QS-9000 and ISO/TS 16949:1999 is now a thing of the past. The 2002 revision has adopted the content and structure of ISO 9001:2000, which promotes a "process approach" to developing, implementing and improving a quality management system. The process approach is reflected in the revised structure of the standard, which contains these 5 auditable clauses:

• Quality Management System
• Management Responsibility
• Resource Management
• Product Realization
• Measurement, Analysis and Improvement.

ISO/TS 16949:2002 was prepared by the International Automotive Task Force (IATF) and Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association (JAMA), with support from ISO/TC 176. IATF members include BMW, DaimlerChrysler, Fiat, Ford Motor Company, General Motors (including Opel Vauxhall), PSA Peugeot-Citroen, Renault SA, Volkswagen and their respective trade associations - AIAG (U.S.), ANFIA (Italy), FIEV (France), SMMT (U.K.) and VDA (Germany). It is expected that Japanese OEMs will also adopt ISO/TS 16949:2002 as their quality management system standard.

As a leading certification body for ISO/TS 16949 with over 800 certifications, the automotive industry is a core competency for AQSR.

In 1995 AQSR lead the first witness audit to QS-9000, the initial North American automotive quality standard.

In an effort to reduce the variation in the registration process, the IATF approved only fraction of the worldwide certification bodies to conduct assessments to ISO/TS 16949. At AQSR, our understanding of the expectations of the automotive OEM's, combined with the depth of knowledge and experience of their auditors will give you confidence as you move thorough the registration process.

ISO TS/16949 is a technical specification, developed by the International Automotive Task Force, an association of the major North American and European carmakers. The technical specification harmonized the requirements of the members' automotive quality standards QS-9000 (North America), VDA 6.1 (Germany) AVSQ (Italy), and EAQF (France).

The goal of ISO/TS 16949 is to create a global quality system language, provide for global recognition of certificates, provide advantages of global sourcing and to reduce multiple 3rd party registrations.

Registration Requirements

In a letter to Automotive Suppliers dated August 2002, the Supplier Quality Requirements Task Force (representing Ford, General Motors and DaimlerChrysler) released details of the eventual expiration of QS-9000:1998 and the industry-wide transfer to ISO/TS 16949:2002.

The key points include:

• All QS-9000 certifications or renewals will expire on December 14, 2006. Beyond this date, ISO/TS 16949:2002 will fully replace QS-9000.
• ISO/TS 16949:2002 "requires increased supplier management commitment to quality system improvement and performance measurements based on data and full process reviews".
• Automotive Suppliers will need to determine if their current registrar is IATF recognized to audit to ISO/TS 16949:2002 (AQSR is IATF recognized).
• Suppliers currently registered to QS-9000 are "strongly urged" to upgrade to ISO/TS 16949:2002 at the expiration of their current QS-9000 certification and no later than December 14, 2006 (or earlier based on individual OEM customer requirements*).
• Suppliers currently registered to ISO/TS 16949:1999 will need to upgrade prior to the expiration of their current certificate or December 15, 2004 (whichever occurs sooner).
  
  *Daimler Chrysler has already established July 1, 2004 as the deadline for registration to ISO/TS 16949:2002 for its direct suppliers.

Benefits

• Increased consistency of assessment process
• Improved product and process quality
• Improved supplier quality
• Improved on-time delivery
• Improved customer satisfaction
• Elimination of multiple third party audits