car production line

Back in October 2013 the International Automotive Task Force (IATF) updated the Certification Rules (updated to 4th edition) relating to the certification process for the technical specification ISO TS 16949 for the automotive industry. All certification audits from 1st April 2014 will be performed according to the new certification rules, and organisations will need to fully transition to the new rules by 1st April 2015.

The most important changes are listed below:

  • Fabless sites are no longer eligible for certification – A Fabless manufacturing site is “the design and distribution of production parts where the fabrication or “fab” of the production part is outsourced to a specialized manufacturer. Fabless companies separate the design from the manufacturing to concentrate on research, design, development and testing.”
  • Removal of manufacturing site extension – current site extensions will now have to become manufacturing sites either as individual stand-alone sites or as part of a corporate scheme.
  • Permissible exclusions – under very strict conditions, part of the site can now be excluded from the audit.
  • The audit preparation – more documentation shall be supplied by the client to the certification body (CB) in advance of the on-site audit to allow the better preparation (in theory reducing the amount of on-site time)
  • Non-conformity and corrective action review – the client must now provide the CB (within 60 days) with evidence of systematic evidence that the corrective action takes consideration of the impact of similar processes and products
The rules above are just a summary of the most important changes to the rules, there are many other changes to consider.

If you are at all worried about the changes to the rules we strongly urge you to contact your certification body at the earliest opportunity.

For further details please visit the IATF website www.iatfglobaloversight.org/