QS 9000/TS 16949: Quality system for automotive industry

Courtesy: QS 9000/TS 16949: Quality system for automotive industry

ISO/TS 16949:2009, in conjunction with ISO 9001:2008, defines the quality management system requirements for the design and development, production and, when relevant, installation and service of automotive-related products.

ISO/TS 16949:2009 is applicable to sites of the organization where customer-specified parts, for production and/or service, are manufactured.

Supporting functions, whether on-site or remote (such as design centres, corporate headquarters and distribution centres), form part of the site audit as they support the site, but cannot obtain stand-alone certification to ISO/TS 16949:2009.

QS-9000 phased out at the end of 2006. It has been replaced by ISO/TS 16949:2002 and ISO 9001:2008 for suppliers in the automotive supply chain. Please, refer to the ISO/TS information in the “Standards” tab. The information below is an outline of what the QS-9000 standard was.

QS-9000 was a set of quality system requirements developed specifically for the automotive sector. In 1994, the requirements were initiated by Ford, General Motors, and DaimlerChrysler (Big Three) for their suppliers to improve quality, efficiency, delivery, and communications.

Since then, QS-9000 went through three major revisions or “editions” all based on ISO 9001:1994 — the last revision was QS-9000:1998 Third Edition. The International Automotive Sector Group (IASG) had provided “Sanctioned Interpretations” on an as needed basis to clarify the QS-9000 requirements. The IASG issued “Sanctioned Interpretations” that became effective on July 1, 2001. You can still download QS-9000 Sanctions

Late in 1992, Purchasing and Quality executives of the Big Three automakers met in Detroit and agreed to help themselves and their suppliers by replacing their individual quality system standards with a single set of Quality System Requirements, later named QS-9000.

After two years of development involving the Big Three and their suppliers and representatives of third-party certification organizations, the automotive industry’s needs and expectations of its parts suppliers were developed.

The ISO 9000 family of standards relates to quality management systems and is designed to help organizations ensure they meet the needs of customers and other stakeholders (Poksinska et al, 2002  ). The standards are published by ISO, the International Organization for Standardization, and available through National standards bodies. ISO 9000 deals with the fundamentals of quality management systems , including the eight management principles (Beattie and Sohal, 1999; Tsim et al, 2002 on which the family of standards is based. ISO 9001 deals with the requirements that organizations wishing to meet the standard have to fulfill. Third party certification bodies provide independent confirmation that organizations meet the requirements of ISO 9001. Over a million organizations worldwide  are independently certified, making ISO 9001 one of the most widely used management tools in the world today. Despite widespread use, however, the ISO certification process has been criticizedas being wasteful and not being useful for all organizations. 

The ISO family of standards is the only international standard that addresses systemic change. The global adoption of ISO 9001 may be attributable to a number of factors. A number of major purchasers require their suppliers to hold ISO 9001 certification. In addition to several stakeholders’ benefits, a number of studies have identified significant financial benefits for organizations certified to ISO 9001, with a 2011 survey from the British Assessment Bureau showing 44% of their certified clients had won new business. Corbett et al (2005)  showed that certified organizations achieved superior return on assets  compared to otherwise similar organizations without certification. Heras et al (2002)  found similarly superior performance  and demonstrated that this was statistically significant and not a function of organization size. Naveh and Marcus (2007)  showed that implementing ISO 9001 led to superior operational performance.  Sharma (2005)  identified similar improvements in operating performance and linked this to superior financial performance. Chow-Chua et al (2002) showed better overall financial performance was achieved for companies in Denmark. Rajan and Tamimi (2003) showed that ISO 9001 certification resulted in superior stock market performance  and suggested that shareholders were richly rewarded  for the investment in an ISO 9001 system. While the connection between superior financial performance and ISO 9001 may be seen from the examples cited, there remains no proof of direct causation, though longitudinal studies, such as those of Corbett et al (2005) may suggest it. Other writers, such as Heras et al (2002), have suggested that while there is some evidence of this, the improvement is partly driven by the fact that there is a tendency for better performing companies to seek ISO 9001 certification.