ISO/TS 16949 specifies the requirements of a quality system for the design, development, production, installation and maintenance of automotive related products.

ISO/TS 16949 is an ISO Technical Specification that harmonizes and overlaps existing quality system standards from the automotive industries of the USA, Germany, France and Italy with the global automotive industry. It specifies the requirements of a quality system for the design, development, production, installation and maintenance of automotive-related products.

The global automotive industry requires first class levels of product quality, productivity, competitiveness and continuous improvement. To achieve this goal, many vehicle manufacturers require their suppliers to apply strict technical specifications as reflected in a Quality Management Standard for automotive suppliers which is ISO/TS 16949.

ISO/TS 16949 was developed by the automotive industry and the IATF (International Automotive Task Force) to emphasize both improvement and certification. It is a fact that for the majority of vehicle manufacturers certification is required in order to do business with any supplier. The standard was first published in March 1999 and revised in 2002 and most recently in 2009. To date, more than 35000 certificates have been issued in 80 countries.

ISO/TS 16949 is important for all automotive suppliers from small to large manufacturers with multiple facilities anywhere in the world. However, it is only applicable to facilities where there is production or manufacturing of parts.

 

Benefits of ISO/TS 16949:

• The specification is based on ISO 9001 and encourages a process approach. Understanding the interrelationship of processes through the use of the standard can help improve product and process quality to avoid variation, resulting in reduced costs of producing defective products.
• As ISO/TS 16949 is based on ISO 9001, it makes it easy to adopt the process approach and integrate other key management systems including ISO 14001 for the environment and OHSAS 18001 for occupational health and safety. It also complements many existing improvement tools such as FMEA (Failure Mode and Effect Analysis), PPAP (Production Part Approval Process) and Six Sigma.
• For suppliers of many different vehicle manufacturers, certification to TS 16949 eliminates the need for certification to VDA6.1 (Germany), and/or EAQF (France), and/or QS-9000 (USA) and/or AVSQ (Italy). There is a system that satisfies all manufacturers, reduces the need for many internal and/or external inspections and documentation needs as well as the associated costs.