30. Aug 2016

Revision of ISO/TS 16949

Last year ISO 9001:2015 was published. As ISO/TS 16949 refers to the contents of ISO 9001, IATF (International Automotive Task Force) also needs to adjust the TS (Technical Standard) accordingly. In April 2016, a first version of the new TS was presented at the IATF Global Stakeholder Conference. In workshops, change requests were elaborated. These change requests were reviewed by IATF and incorporated as applicable. In October 2016, the new IATF 16949:2016 is supposed to be available.

The most important changes are the following:

Requirements for safety-related parts and processes
Enhanced product traceability requirements to support latest regulatory changes
Requirements for products with embedded software
Warranty management process including addressing NTF (no trouble found) and use of automotive industry guidance
Clarification of sub-tier supplier management and development requirements
Addition of corporate responsibility requirements

IATF’s certification rules are being revised just as well and are supposed to appear in November 2017.

As for certification acc. to the new TS, namely IATF 16949:2016, an “IATF 16949 Transition Strategy” was published in August. Following, please find a short summary:

Existing Certificates acc. to ISO/TS 16949:2009 will be valid until September 14, 2018. In the transition period, no ISO/TS 16949:2009 Audits will be conducted after October 1, 2017, any more. From this moment, at the latest, a “Transition Audit” will have to be conducted acc. to IATF 16949:2016. If implementation of the new IATF requirements has been finished within your company earlier, a “Transition Audit” can be conducted even before October 2017.

Figure: Timing of the transition from ISO / TS 16949:2009 --> IATF 16949:2016, status as of August 2016

This “Transition Audit” will have to be conducted instead of a planned audit (Surveillance Audit or Recertification Audit) according to the cycle (in the time frames respectively allowed acc. to the IATF Rules). The duration of the “Transition Audit” needs to correspond to that of a Recertification Audit. Before the “Transition Audit”, “off-site” review of documentation needs to take place. At this review, system documents and evidence will be viewed in order to verify conformity to the new IATF 16949 in advance.

As for the change of the audit team, the same rules apply as at a Recertification Audit (some alleviations being granted).

As for the auditors, IATF requires them to have successfully completed the IATF 16949 quiz and the IATF Rules quiz in IATF’s ADP (Auditor Development Process) before being allowed to conduct a “Transition Audit”. All auditors must successfully have completed the two quizzes no later than June 30, 2017.