ISO / TS 16949:2009 – Automobile Industry Quality Management System Standard
Automotive industry is one of the most challenging industries in the world and it operates under extreme pressures of cost and time. Rely on suppliers is the key aspect for the manufacturers and these suppliers must have control on their processes, understanding their customers’ specific requirements to focus on continuous improvement. Appropriate certification of its management system offers a decisive advantage in demonstrating that the company meets this criteria.
The ISO/TS 16949 standard is a worldwide automotive standard developed by the International Automotive Task Force (IATF) – a group of the world’s leading automotive manufacturers (General Motors, Ford, BMW, PSA Citroen, Volkswagen, Renault and Fiat) and their respective trade associations. The standard brings together the various aspects of ISO 9001:2008, AVSQ (Italian), EAQF (French), VDA6 (German) and QS-9000 (U.S.) into one standard. ISO/TS 16949:2009 can be applied to company sites worldwide, wherever automobiles or its parts and components are manufactured.
A commercial advantage during contract negotiations
A clear focus on continual improvement, emphasizing defect prevention and reduction of variation and waste
Time and cost savings by avoiding multiple customer specific certification audits
The international recognition of the ISO/TS 16949:2009 standard increases the credibility of organisation when bidding for global sourcing contracts or expanding business locally.
To create a common quality system approach to the entire supply chain (for suppliers/subcontractors) and facilitates access to the industry’s best practices
The International Automotive Task Force (IATF) published IATF 16949, the standard for automotive quality management systems. This standard, summarize the key changes from its predecessor, ISO/TS 16949, and offer guidance on achieving certification to the requirements of the standard.
IATF 16949 is a technical specification developed by the IATF that defines quality management system requirements applicable in the automotive supply chain. It is based on the ISO 9001:2015 -quality management system. It adopts the high-level structure and also incorporates additional quality requirements applicable exclusively to the automotive sector. Further, IATF 16949 details a registration scheme for third-party suppliers to independently validate compliance with the requirements of the standard. IATF 16949 replaces ISO/TS 16949, which was jointly developed by the IATF and the ISO in 1999. It has been widely adopted by automotive manufacturers and suppliers and expected to be a procurement requirement for most manufacturers and suppliers.
Organizations currently certified to the requirements of ISO/TS 16949 will have time till Sept. 14, 2018.