IATF 16949 – Automotive industry
IATF 16949 governs quality management for series and spare part production in the automotive industry. But it does not apply on its own. The standard presupposes ISO 9001 and is applied together with it. So anyone seeking certification to IATF 16949 meets both: the base standard and the additional requirements of the automotive industry. That is not a formality, it is the basis for all your planning.
The difference from ISO 9001 lies in what is expected. The base standard leaves open how a business meets it. IATF 16949 becomes very specific in many places and demands defect prevention instead of defect detection. On top of that come the requirements of the individual vehicle manufacturers, which apply in addition to the standard. That part in particular is regularly underestimated when the system is being built.
Who it applies to
- Suppliers producing series-relevant parts or spare parts for the automotive industry – without the certificate, hardly any manufacturer awards a series contract
- Businesses in the second and third supplier tiers that are being held to account by their customers
- Companies with a mixed customer base where the automotive side follows rules of its own
- Manufacturers already working to ISO 9001 who are now moving into automotive supply – one of our sector specialisms
Where it usually goes wrong
Customer-specific requirements are not captured systematically
Every vehicle manufacturer brings specifications of its own. They apply in addition to the standard and are just as binding for the supplier. They sit scattered across supplier portals, requirement specifications, notes on drawings and supply contracts. Nobody hands them over as a finished list.
If you do not bring these customer-specific requirements (CSR) together in one place and map them to your own processes, you meet them by chance or not at all. That is the most common finding of all. In the audit it shows immediately: asked about a specific customer requirement, people start searching the portal. The remedy is a maintained matrix that assigns every requirement to a process, an owner and a piece of evidence.
The core tools exist but are not lived
APQP, PPAP, FMEA, MSA and SPC are present in almost every business. Usually as completed forms, neatly filed and formally complete. That is enough for the sampling process, but not for day-to-day work.
The FMEA is drawn up once for the sampling and is then never touched again when processes change. The SPC charts hang on the machine without anyone reacting to deviations. The tools thereby lose exactly the effect they exist for. A good test is simple: ask to be shown the last process change and check whether the FMEA knows about it.
Complaints without a genuine root cause analysis
The 8D report goes out on time, often in exemplary form. The cause given is “operator error”, the action “staff briefed”. The customer is satisfied for a while, and the defect comes back.
A cause that points at a single person is almost never the cause. The real question is why the process allowed the defect in the first place. Only then do you get actions that hold: a fixture, an inspection at the right point, a changed sequence. Repeat complaints are the best indication that the analysis stopped too early.
How we support you
We start with a stocktake. Much of it is already there, just not organised as evidence. Out of that comes a plan that names the gaps and leaves out unnecessary work. A fixed part of it is the complete capture of your customer-specific requirements.
Then comes the build: process landscape, core tools, records and the internal audit programme. More under Building a management system and Internal audits & gap analyses. Before the certification audit we examine the system with an outside eye and say openly what does not yet hold up.
Who handles this at our end
Marion Rammé – IRCA certified and registered QMS / EMS / OHSMS Lead Auditor #01194927, with IATF 16949, VDA 6.3 and automotive customer requirements in her competence profile
To be honest: this standard is covered by one person here. For ISO 9001 there are three of us, here there are not. That means we plan automotive projects with a little more lead time and tell you early if a date is going to be tight. The team in detail
Related standards
- ISO 9001 – a prerequisite, applied together with IATF 16949
- VDA 6.3 – process audit, which many customers require in addition
- ISO 14001 – environmental management, increasingly required in the supply chain
Frequently asked questions
How long does it take to be ready for certification?
Reckon on twelve to eighteen months if you are starting from scratch. One reason is the standard itself, the other is the evidence periods: key figures, internal audits and the management review have to be available over a certain stretch of time. If you already work to ISO 9001, you will be considerably faster.
What does it cost?
Projects of this kind typically run between 10,000 and 50,000 euros. The deciding factors are company size, the number of sites, the maturity of your processes and how much of the implementation you take on yourselves. The certification body's fees come on top.
Do we need an ISO 9001 as well?
IATF 16949 presupposes ISO 9001 and contains its requirements. The two are applied together. Whether you also need a separate ISO 9001 certificate depends on your customers outside the automotive sector. We clarify that at the start.
How do we get hold of the customer-specific requirements?
Through your customers' supplier portals, through the requirement specifications and through the supply contracts. We go through these sources with you and bring the requirements together in one overview. We then assign each requirement to a process and a piece of evidence.
What is the difference from VDA 6.3?
IATF 16949 is a certifiable system standard for your entire quality management. VDA 6.3 is a method for process audits and examines individual processes or products in detail. Many customers require both side by side. One does not replace the other.
Let us talk about it
The first conversation is free and without obligation.