The automotive industry has always been at the forefront of the application of quality systems and quality tools. Long before the ISO 9000 series most automotive companies had developed their own quality management requirements that had to be fulfilled by their suppliers. ISO TS 16949 can be seen as the final step towards harmonization of the various quality management standards for automotive suppliers.

The most important differences with ISO 9001 are:

• The obligatory use of some fundamental quality techniques like Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA), Statistical Process Control (SPC) and Measurement Systems Analysis (MSA).
  
  
• More requirements and more detailed requirements, like a detailed description of what a control plan should contain; the demand for contingency plans; a very detailed description of what should be part of the output of a design process; etcetera.
  
  
• A very strong emphasis on prevention and the use of error-proof systems (Poka-Yoke).
  
  
• Special attention to design and development, both of product and of process. There is a strong emphasis on Quality Planning (Advanced Product Quality Planning and Control Plan – APQP) and an extensive procedure for the release of new products and processes (Production Part Approval Process – PPAP). This also fits in the preventive nature of the standard.

QS Consult view and approach

Off course all the guidelines that we use when implementing ISO 9001:2008 stay valid (see “ISO 9001”). Suppliers to the automotive industry have been confronted with quality system demands very similar to the ones in ISO TS 16949 from their customer for a long time already. There is always a system present and working and very often certificated to ISO 9001. You never start from scratch. What strikes us very often is that the quality of application of the obligatory tools (FMEA, SPC, MSA) is often very low. This is true for the deployment of the application and for the in-depth knowledge of the tools.

Services offered

• Consulting on the implementation of the system.
• Training and consulting on APQP and PPAP.
• Training and consulting when applying quality tools like SPC, MSA, Global 8D and FMEA. For more information on this, see “Statistical methods”.
• Training and consulting on Internal Process Audit according to VDA 6.3