QMS and IATF Requirements

If you’re in the automotive manufacturing industry, I’m sure you’re all too aware that the International Automotive Task Force (IATF) recently released its new global quality standard known as IATF 16949:2016. The new standard, combined with International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 9001 and customer-specific requirements, defines the core quality management system obligations for global automotive production and service parts organizations. Did you know that only five percent of automotive suppliers have completed their audits, and there’s only one year left?

Did you know that only five percent of automotive suppliers have completed their audits, and there’s only one year left?

Are You Ready to Comply with IATF 16949?

Considering the challenges in recent years and the opportunity in coming years, it is imperative that executive management of automotive tier suppliers address IATF 16949:2016 by September 2018.  Among those key areas are risk-based thinking, knowledge management, Total Predictive Maintenance (TPM), employee skills and supplier selection and evaluation.

Keeping a quality management system (QMS) in line with all of the changes can be a daunting task, especially given the short two-year time-frame with only one year left to go to complete the new certification.  For this reason, relying on a best-in-class enterprise quality management system generally, provides a significant advantage to companies who choose this type of system over paper-based or spreadsheet-based systems.

A QMS Solution to Support Your IATF Compliance

The enterprise QAD QMS has been updated with over 80 new features to provide support for many of the changes in the IATF 16949 standard including a significantly enhanced Risk module and a new Performance module.

QAD QMS is comprised of 10 integrated modules built around industry best practices for automotive suppliers, now updated to support IATF 16949. The benefits of these modules include:

  • Single Risk Register: Provides a single source for risks, regardless of context, for the whole enterprise.
  • Risk in-context Identification: System contexts allow users to easily identify and analyze risks within the areas they’re responsible for such as suppliers, processes, projects, objectives and/or changes.
  • Lessons Learned: Integrating lessons learned into key processes, such as APQP projects, nonconformances and risk management creates a living lessons learned database.
  • Improved Supplier Management: Adding processes for supplier risk assessments, supplier PPAP, and chargebacks rounds out a robust module for selecting and evaluating suppliers in avoiding disruptions or recovering quickly when an event occurs.
  • Performance Management: Objective identification includes establishing metrics and targets that provide visual tracking toward completion of objectives, as well as, the ability to identify tactics and risks associated with each objective.
  • Objective Scorecards and Trends: Providing a point in time visual on the status of all objectives in the organization helps to improve the communication of objectives throughout the team.  

To learn more about how you can prepare your company for this upcoming industry standard, check out the white paper, Embracing the IATF 16949 Automotive Standard. If you have any questions about how QAD can help you prepare and comply with IATF’s new standard, please leave a comment and I can get in touch with you.

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