Along with the increasing customer requirements for automobiles, the rough management mode of some enterprises runs counter to the automotive industry’s emphasis on the production concept of zero defects, and the International Automotive Action Group released IATF 16949: 2016 “Quality Management System for Automotive Production Parts and Related Services Organizations” in October 2016 according to the changes in the internal and external environment. Promoted by all circles, the standard is now widely used not only as a standard for the automotive industry, but also for cell phones, chips and other industries, and the standard has become an important criterion for their self-improvement and evaluation of suppliers.
The establishment of IATF 16949 quality management system is not only a requirement for suppliers from OEMs, but also a way to improve product quality and increase customer satisfaction to avoid being eliminated in the fierce market competition.
What is IATF 16949?
IATF 16949 is a technical specification for the international automotive industry based on ISO 9001, which is equivalent to the common language of the international automotive industry, with the aim of reducing quality fluctuations and waste in the supply chain.
IATF 16949 was developed by the International Automotive Task Force (IATF). IATF 16949: 2016 is an innovative document designed by the IATF. It provides a strong preference for customers and includes many consolidated customer-specific requirements. IATF maintains a strong partnership with ISO by continuing to maintain liaison committee status to ensure alignment with ISO 9001.
IATF 16949 Standard
The new IATF 16949:2016 standard focuses on the orientation of automotive customers, the specific requirements of previous automotive customers, and fully respects the requirements of the ISO 9001:2015 standard and the high-level structure framework (HLS), as well as the foundation and terminology of ISO 9000:2015,— It defines the basic quality management system requirements for automotive production parts and related service parts organizations. Therefore, the IATF 16949:2016 standard cannot be regarded as an independent quality management system standard, but this standard must be understood as a supplement to the ISO 9001:2015 standard and used in conjunction with the ISO 9001:2015 standard.
The goal of the new IATF 16949:2016 standard is to develop a quality management system in the automotive supply chain that provides continuous improvement, emphasizes defect prevention, and reduces variation and waste.
Registration to IATF 16949 is not only beneficial, but is also a requirement for any company wishing to supply its products to the automotive industry. Companies registering for this technical specification must develop their supplier’s quality management system to enable the supplier to comply with the objectives of IATF 16949.
Application Of IATF 16949:2016
- IATF16949 applies to the entire automotive supply chain including OEMs;
- Applicable to the manufacturing site of the organization’s customer-specified production parts or service parts;
- On-site or external support functions (such as design centers, corporate headquarters and distribution centers), must form part of the on-site audit, but cannot be independently certified. Production parts refer to vehicle loading parts; service parts (spare parts) refer to maintenance parts that are directly related to vehicle manufacturers; in addition, the scope of application of suppliers such as jacks, fire extinguishers, and user manuals is added.
IATF 16949 applies to organizations in the automotive industry supply chain that perform customer-specified manufacturing sites for production and/or repair parts, for both automotive manufacturers and parts suppliers. The term “automotive” includes cars, light commercial vehicles, heavy trucks, buses and motorcycles, excluding industrial, agricultural and off-highway (mining, forestry, construction, etc.), and excluding aftermarket parts.
Support functions, whether on or off site (e.g. design centers, corporate headquarters and distribution centers, etc.), form part of the manufacturing site quality management system and certification audit because of their supportive role to the manufacturing site, but cannot be certified separately to this standard.
The main content of IATF 16949:2016 covers the requirements of the basic part of ISO 9001:2015 and the special requirements part of the automotive industry.
Benefits Of Implementing IA/TF16949
1. Develop the market: IA/TF16949 as a mark of quality assurance helps companies to gain the trust of customers to obtain a broader market space.
2. Improve customer satisfaction: By implementing IA/TF16949, focus on and meet customer requirements in order to improve customer satisfaction.
3. Reduce cost and increase efficiency: continuously focus on business operation performance and improve process performance indicators in order to achieve cost reduction and increase efficiency.
4. Improve product and delivery quality: the use of systematic development and improvement methods to ensure product quality and delivery performance IA/TF16949 concerns, IA/TF16949 quality management system standard has five major concerns, through the operation and implementation of these five concerns to improve business operation performance, concerns include: customer requirements and expectations, defect prevention, process methods, continuous improvement, the establishment of Indicator system.
IA/TF16949 Implementation Method
IA/TF16949 quality system planning, establishment and implementation using a systematic approach to ensure that the organization meets the requirements of the standard and improve operational performance.
- conducting a gap analysis of the enterprise site.
- implementation of QOS (Quality Operating System) training and conduct of QOS activities.
- implementation of standards training.
- defining processes using turtle diagrams and identifying process boundaries and interrelationships.
- discussion of detailed process flows and creation of process flow diagrams as input for program documentation.
- preparation of procedure documents.
- quality system commissioning, providing training on quality tools necessary for ISO16949:2009 implementation (e.g. APQP, FMEA, MSA, SPC, PPAP, 8D, etc.).
- Carry out internal audits and implement improvements.
IATF16949 Certification and Requirements
The IATF16949 system is a very large system. If you do not have enough understanding of IATF16949, it will be quite difficult to establish, and many problems will be involved in it.
The following is a list of materials required for the second phase of the IATF16949 audit:
- Quality Manual
- Program files
- The process pattern diagram and process list identified by the company (three types of COP, SP, MP)
- The relationship between the identified process and the article, please record in the attached table
- A list of goals for each process and their performance/trend graph for the past 12 months
- List or schedule of documents
- Customer-specific list or schedule, and its documentation (matrix with process)
- Performance information or score sheets provided by customers, and conclusion reports of customer satisfaction surveys
- List of customer complaints and related information
- Internal audit results and reports
- List or checklist of qualified internal auditors
- Management review plan, report
- Confirm in advance the number of employees, production shifts and their time at each site of the company
- FMEA (including DFMEA, if necessary)
IATF16949 is an international standard formulated based on ISO9000 and aimed at the characteristics of the automotive supply chain industry. It is an effective quality management system and the latest quality management standard in the global automotive industry. More and more automobile OEMs clearly require their supporting factories to import this standard!