A short history lesson
BS 5750 was one of the forerunners of the ISO 9000 series of standards. A driver for BSI as the UK National Standards Body (NSB) to undertake its development was the requirement for a single standard that could apply across the supply base – equivalent to the NATO procurement standards but applicable to non-defence companies. This would leave automotive component purchasers to concentrate on their contract requirements and ensure their supply base understood all product-specific requirements. One benefit for suppliers was a common set of core system requirements for all customers that would allow them to prepare and present their system to a single independent third party, without needing to satisfy a range of sometimes conflicting supplier quality engineers, each representing a customer they supplied.
This process evolved through customer standards:
- QS-9000, from Ford, DaimlerChrysler and General Motors (generally known as the Big Three)
- EAQF 94, from PSA (Peugeot/Citroen)/Renault/FIEV (Fédération des Industries des Equipements pour Véhicules)
- VDA 6.1, from the VDA (German Association of the Automotive Industry)
- AVSQ 94, from ANFIA (Associazione Nationale Filera Industria Automobilisticha)
In 1997 the International Automotive Task Force (IATF) team representing the majority of automotive original equipment manufacturers (OEM) looked to bring the four documents together, more explicitly highlighting core ISO 9001:1994 requirements with those agreed by automotive industry participants, published as ISO TS 16949:1999. One of the benefits of this approach was that an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) could buy into the overall specification, and generic industry requirements beyond ISO 9001 and still have the freedom to demand customer-specific requirements.
TS 16949 edition was republished in 2002 to reflect the changes in ISO 9001:2000 and included participation by the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association Inc. One of the perceived strengths was structured on the ISO 9001:2000 process approach.
The current automotive standard was renamed IATF 16949 and the text of ISO 9001 was taken out but referenced from the automotive industry text.
All subscribing OEMs have committed to accepting supplier certification to IATF 16949 as evidence of effective quality management.
IATF 16949 builds on the principles of quality assurance in earlier editions of ISO 9001 and the process approach of the latest edition, it looks at:
- business processes from end to end
- continual improvement
- preventive action
- corrective action
- seven principles of quality management
- Customer focus
- Leadership
- Engagement of people
- Process approach
- Improvement
- Evidence-based decision making
- Relationship management
Emphasis on the process approach is intended to overcome the perception that audits of the quality system were too focused on documented procedures and a checklist assessment.