| | Automotive News |  | New IATF rules for certification to ISO/TS 16949:2002
What has changed?
| | | With the publication of ISO/TS 16949:2002 in April 2002, the automotive sector took another large step towards Automotive Excellence. The technical specification ISO/TS 16949 is the result of a joint working group of the International Automotive Task Force (IATF) and the ISO Technical Committee (ISO/TC 176) as well as its sub-committees. |
| Effective October 1st, 2004, the IATF (International Automotive Task Force), represented in Germany by the VDA QMC in Oberursel, published new rules for the certification process. The new rules became valid for all current and new certifications on December 15st, 2004, without further rules for transitioning.
The most important changes for certification bodies/registrars
- Auditors assigned to pre-audit and certification audit must not be identical.
- Each certification body has to prepare and implement its own process for the conduct of witness audits (monitoring audits for auditors).
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The most important changes to the audit process
- For initial certification, determination of the ability to be certified has to be done on site and comprise at least one person day (audit level 1).
- During initial certification, remote locations with supporting functions need to be audited prior to production sites.
- Even if all possible reasons for reduction apply, audit days may not be reduced by more than 50%.
- The audit day chart at annex 3 does not contain figures for advancement audits. Per definition, the amount of days for an initial certification needs to be divided by two and rounded up to half days.
- Postponement tolerance for advancement audits now amounts to minus three months plus one month.
- When making use of translators (auditors do not speak the local language), audit days need to be increased by 20%.
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The most important changes to the certificate
- Each production site must receive its own certificate.
- Certificate annex will only list those customers of the organization whose customer specific requirements mattered for the audit.
The new certification requirements are available in German and English (original version) at www.vda-qmc.de. Annex 7 contains a comprehensive list of changes made.
Contact:
Stefan Kraft
Product Manager |
| January 2005
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