The ISO/TS 16949 was jointly developed by the International Automotive Task Force (IATF), whose vehicle manufacturer members include: BMW, Daimler-Chrysler, Fiat, Ford, General Motors (including Opel Vauxhall), PSA Peugeot-Citron, Renault SA, Volkswagon and their respective trade associations - AIAG (USA), ANFIA (Italy), FIEV (France), SMMT (UK) and VDA (Germany).

The newly formed International Automotive Oversight Bureau (IAOB) in Southfield, Michigan USA is responsible for the implementation and registration process of ISO/TS 16949 and providing support to the IATF.

ISO/TS 16949 is an automotive quality system requirement catalogue based on ISO 9001:2000, QS9000 3rd Edition (U.S.), AVSQ (Italian), EAQF (French) and VDA6.1 (German) automotive catalogues.

ISO/TS 16949, when coupled with customer specific requirement, will be recognised by IATF members as the global equivalent to the existing automotive standards. This would benefit those companies who trade with multiple International AutomotiveCompanies. However, those companies who deal solely with North America and Europe vehicle manufacturers need only certify to ISO/TS16949.

N.B. ISO/TS 16949: 2002 does not replace QS9000, AVSQ, EAQF, VDA6.1. Tooling & Equipment suppliers should continue to use Quality System Requirements TE supplement second edition.

ISO/TS 16949 Implementation Guide

Suppliers are required to transition to ISO/TS 16949 by December 14th 2006 or as specified by their customer. The weakest part of QS9000 was the implementation of the standard, both from a supplier and registrar's perspective.

How this document fills the need

This implementation guide gives us an opportunity to improve ISO/TS 16949 implementation based on lessons learned from QS9000 by: -

Supporting documents for ISO/TS 16949

RULES FOR ACHIEVING IATF RECOGNITION
This contains the requirements or “Rules for the automotive registration scheme for ISO/TS 16949 certification bodies” with regard to implementation including criteria for certification body recognition, certification body audit process, certification body auditor qualifications and, certificates. For certification bodies that are recognised by IATF for ISO/TS 16949 certification, these requirements are binding.

IATF GUIDANCE TO ISO/TS 16949
This document is limited to providing assistance in the application of ISO/TS 16949. It is not intended as a requirement for certification and is for reference only.

It supports the ISO/TS 16949, with examples, applications, practices or explanations. This guide is intended to apply to sites of organisations where production and/or service part specified by the customer are manufactured. It may also be applied to organisations throughout the automotive supply chain.

(QMS) CHECKLIST BASED ON PROCESS AUDIT APPROACH
This document is based on the content of ISO/TS 16949 and it is effective for the life of this standard. This checklist is to be used as a guide in auditing the requirements of ISO/TS 16949.