The ISO/TS 16949 was jointly developed by the International Automotive Task Force (IATF) members and submitted to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) for approval and publication. The document is a common automotive quality system requirements catalog based on ISO 9001:2008, and specific requirements from the automotive sector. It’s first edition was published in March 2002 as ISO/TS 16949:2002. This document, coupled with customer-specific requirements defines quality system requirements for use in the automotive supply chain.
About 30 percent of the more than 100 existing automobile manufacturers affiliate the requirements of the norm but especially the large Asian manufacturers have differentiated, own requirements for the quality management systems of their corporate group and their suppliers. The requirements are intended to be applied throughout the supply chain. For the first time vehicle assembly plants will be encouraged to seek ISO/TS16949 certification
The IATF has developed a common registration scheme for supplier 3rd party registration to the ISO/TS 16949. The registration scheme includes third party auditor qualifications and common rules for consistent global registration. Some of the benefits of the IATF registration scheme include:
- Improved product and process quality
- Additional confidence for global sourcing
- Reassignment of supplier resources to quality improvement
- Common quality system approach in the supply chain for supplier/subcontractor development and consistency
- Reduction in multiple 3rd party registrations