ISO/TS 16949 is not a standard but a Technical Specification. You only have to apply it to sites where production or service parts are manufactured. A site is defined as a location at which value added manufacturing processes occur. Manufacturing is defined as the process of making production materials, parts or assemblies, or heat treating, painting, plating services.
Upgraded version
ISO/TS 16949, Second Edition, was issued on March 1, 2002. The First Edition from 1999 expired December 15, 2003. Any certification is now done to the Second Edition. The Big 3 have elected to allow a one year grace period for companies that are already certified to the First Edition, thus giving companies until December 14, 2004, to make the transition.
ISO/TS 16949 vs. national standards
For now, ISO/TS 16949 is an option for suppliers along with VDA 6.1. It can be used in place of the national standards. The general trend seems to be a move away from national standards to the international ISO/TS 16949 standard, although not all national schemes have set formal transition deadlines.
ISO 9001
Certification of your Quality Management System to ISO 9001 forms the basic management system requirements for ISO/TS 16949. It is recommended that you transition to or get certified to the latest version of the Quality Management System standard, i.e. ISO 9001. It provides an opportunity to align your management system based on the processes of your organisation. In addition, it demands increased focus on your customer's needs, continual improvement, and need to involve top management.
ISO/TS 16949 will help you to:
- Improve automotive supply chain product and process quality.
- Apply common and consistent international quality system requirements for the automotive industry.
- Gain confidence in global supplier quality.
- Implement policies and procedures for a common third party registration scheme to ensure consistency worldwide.
- Introduce process-based audits focusing on customer satisfaction.
- Gain global acceptance of the standard in place of national standards.
Where do I go from here?
For third party certification, you need to implement an effective quality system complying with the requirements. The first step is to get on the road to certification.
For a list of deadlines, please proceed to transition or download the Guide to automotive manufacturer's position on ISO/TS 16949 under "related info" on the right.
