ISO/TS 16949 is an ISO technical specification which aligns existing US, German, French and Italian automotive quality system standards within the global automotive industry. It specifies the quality system requirements for the design/development, production, installation and servicing of automotive-related products. 

The global automotive industry demands world class levels of product quality, productivity and competitiveness as well as continual improvement. To achieve this goal many vehicle manufacturers insist that suppliers are certified to the quality management standard for suppliers to the automotive sector, known as ISO/TS 16949.

ISO/TS 16949 has been developed by the industry, the International Automotive Task Force (IATF), to encourage improvement in both the supply chain and the certification process. In fact, for the majority of leading vehicle manufacturers, certification to this specification is a mandatory requirement for doing business.This specification aligns and supersedes existing US, German, French and Italian automotive quality system standards, including QS-9000, VDA6.1, EAQF and ASQ. It specifies the quality system requirements for the design/development, production, installation and servicing of all automotive-related products. First published in March 1999 and revised in 2002, there are now over 45,750 certificates issued in the three major business areas of the Americas-Europe-Asia. Who is it relevant to?

ISO/TS 16949 is relevant to all types of automotive supply companies, from small manufacturers to multi-site, multinational organizations located anywhere in the world. However, it is only applicable to sites where production or service parts are manufactured for the original equipment market.

Organizations wishing to break into the automotive market must wait until they are on an automotive customer's potential supplier list before they can progress with certification to this specification.

·     License to trade
For most vehicle manufacturers, certification is a mandatory requirement that is internationally recognized – helping you to do business worldwide.

·     Reduces waste and prevents defects
The specification is based on ISO 9001 and encourages a process approach. Understanding the inter-relationship of processes through the use of the standard can enable improved product and process quality and ultimately avoids variation in the supply chain.

·     Flexible and easy to adopt
ISO/TS 16949 is based on ISO 9001, making the process approach easy to adopt and integrate with other key management systems including ISO 14001 Environmental and OHSAS 18001 Occupational Health and Safety. It also complements many existing business improvement tools, such as FMEA, PPAP, MSA, SPC and Six Sigma.

·     Brand reputation
Certification can provide additional confidence and consistency to all interested parties in global sourcing, enabling greater business opportunities and attracting more investment prospects.

1. Initial Meeting
QUACERT provides necessary information to Organisation, including Certification Principles and Conditions, Certification process and procedure, and other relevant information.

2. Certificate Registration
After reviewing and understanding Certification Principles and Conditions,certification process and procedures, organization must send the"Certification Registration" signed by the authorized representative to QUACERT.

3. Consider certificate registration and set up an auditing program
Before conducting assessment, QUACERT considers "CertificationRegistration" and supporting information. Then, QUACERT will establishauditing programs for organizations applying for certification basing onresults of the Certification Registration Consideration.

4. Assessment preparation
Basing on the results of Certification Registration Consideration,QUACERT will determine competence requirements of the officials involvedin audit team and staffs making certification decisions. QUACERT must ensure all tasks assigned to the audit team are clearly defined andinformed the organization applying for certification.

5. Assessment
QUACERT executes assessment in two phases. The first phase is toconsider the conditions and collect the necessary information related tothe organization. The second one is conducted at the site of theorganization.

6. Assessment Conclusion & Report
Auditor team of QUACERT must analyze all relevant information andevidence collected during the assessment in the 1st and 2nd phase toreview findings and give assessment conclusions.

7. Certification
The auditor team must provide all the necessary information to technical board of QUACERT for verification before certification petition, includingassessment report, review, verifying information provided to QUACERT, propose to grant or not to grant a certificate along with the conditions ornote.

The Certificate is effective for 03 years since the signing date with the condition that the Organization complies fully with the requirements of theCertification Principles and Conditions.

8. Surveillance activities & Certification maintaining
Monitoring activities are performed at least once a year at the site of theorganization. Surveillance time is normally not exceeding 12 months since the end of the 2nd assessment phase.

9. Re-assessment 
Re-assessment activities are conducted in order to evaluate theorganization's continuous compliance with the requirements of relatedmanagement system standards. 

10. Extending assessment 
If organizations that have been certified desire to expand the scope ofcertification, they must make a registration to QUACERT. Upon receipt ofregistration, QUACERT will consider and determine necessary assessment activities to decide to expand or not certified range.

11. Extraordinary assessment
QUACERT procedures must consider the ability to conduct extraordinaryassessment for certified organization to be able to investigate complain,respond to changes or review suspended organizations.