ISO/TS 16949 IATF QMS Standard and Proposed Transition
The New ISO/TS 16949 IATF QMS Standard Transition
ISO/TS 16949, the automotive quality management system (QMS) standard, has been under development for the past several months. IATF Oversight and committee member review is currently taking place. It is anticipated that the International Automotive Task Force (IATF) will make a decision on the final draft and Rules revisions by fourth quarter 2016. The expectation is that the IATF will communicate to Certification Bodies (CBs) in September 2016 and release the final draft in October 2016. All organizations currently certified to ISO/TS 16949:2009 3rd Edition must transition to the new ISO/TS 16949 QMS standard by September 14, 2018, prior to the current ISO9001:2008 expiration date.
IATF will also release revised automotive certification scheme rules that support the certification process from the current 4th Edition to the revised rules in conjunction with the new automotive QMS Standard. This will include all the Sanctioned Interpretations (SI) since the previous rules were issued in December 2013.
Changes to ISO/TS 16949:2016 4th Edition
The global automotive industry is facing important challenges, including the rapid growth of the supply base in emerging markets, and the need to improve reliability, efficiency and performance. Key changes to ISO/TS 16949:2016 include the following:
- The new automotive standard will be based on ISO 9001:2015 and will incorporate of some of the Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) Customer Specific Requirements (CSRs) to reduce the complexity and number of CSRs for suppliers to implement and for CBs to audit
- Inclusion of requirements for safety-related parts and processes
- Enhancement of product traceability requirements
- Inclusion of requirements for products with embedded software
- Inclusion of a warranty management process addressing no trouble found (NTF) and the use of automotive industry guidance
- Clarification of sub-tier supplier management and development requirements
- Addition of corporate responsibility requirements
- Adoption of Annex SL High Level Structure, the same structure used when developing ISO 9001:2015
What does this mean for my certified company?
The new edition of the standard is expected to be released in the fourth quarter of 2016, and effective as of January 1, 2017, after which the suppliers will need to review and implement changes within their QMS. To facilitate this updating, the IATF will announce the availability of supplier training in third quarter 2016, and the IATF Oversights will issue a gap analysis guidance tool to help with implementation.
All companies certified against ISO/TS 16949:2009 will need to complete a successful transition audit, including a positive certification decision, by September 14, 2018. CBs should be able to start audits to the new document by April 2017. There is a proposal to establish a cut-off date for existing standard audits; the recommended cut-off date is sometime in June 2017.
There are two routes to transition:
Option 1
- Certified companies can transition within their current ISO/TS 16949:2009 audit cycle, i.e. at the next planned surveillance or recertification audit
Option 2
- Certified companies can transfer at any time, i.e. outside the normal surveillance or recertification audit cycle
To ensure certification decisions are made by 2018, all transitional audits should aim to be completed by the end of July 2018 to verify effective closure of any non-conformances identified during the transition audit.
What's next?
The IATF oversight offices and their witness auditors are currently conducting pilot gap audits with selected certified companies to confirm the new requirements are understood and can be audited before releasing the standard by year-end 2016. Contact ABS Quality Evaluations for more information about the revisions, and we will provide specific guidance for complying with these changes.