Also called TS 16949, automotive quality standard, customer-specific requirements
What is IATF 16949?
The automotive quality standard, which sits on top of ISO 9001 and adds a long list of customer-driven requirements.
What else it is called
- Other names
- TS 16949, automotive quality standard, customer-specific requirements
- In French
- IATF 16949
Related entries
Understanding IATF 16949
The quality management standard used throughout the automotive supply chain. It takes the ISO 9001 structure and adds the requirements the car industry learned it needed: formal part approval, advance planning of new products, documented failure mode analysis, control plans, measurement system analysis, traceability, and tight rules about what happens when a defect escapes.
The part that catches new suppliers out is customer-specific requirements. Each manufacturer publishes its own additions, they differ, they change, and an auditor will check your compliance with the ones that apply to you. Keeping track of them for three or four customers is a real job rather than a filing task.
For a Canadian manufacturer the practical question is usually whether to pursue it at all. It is a significant investment and it is non-negotiable for direct automotive work, so the decision is really about whether that market is where the business is going.
In practice
Before committing, price the certification, the surveillance audits and the person who will own the customer-specific requirements. The third of those is the cost that gets left out of the business case.
Frequently asked
Do we need ISO 9001 as well?
Yes. The automotive standard is written as a supplement and refers to ISO 9001 throughout. You are audited against both together.
Is there an aerospace equivalent?
AS9100, which does the same job for aerospace and defence: ISO 9001 plus sector requirements covering configuration management, counterfeit parts, special processes and product safety.