The battle for survival in the $1500 billion per year global automotive industry has never been fiercer. During the 1980s, Japanese manufacturers shocked European and North American counterparts with far better levels of quality and productivity.
Kaizen, Kanban, JIT and SPC became essential competitive weapons for all automotive manufacturers. Huge amounts of stock disappeared from inventories and the measurement of failure rates changed from percentages to parts per million.
On both sides of the Atlantic, heavy advertising, attractive finance deals, free insurance, servicing or fuel - and aggressive price discounting - have all been crucial elements in maintaining market share. The impact on margins has been very costly for car manufacturers, with inevitable consequences for corporate profits.
No Western Vehicle Manufacturer (VM) is immune, with disappointing results emanating from Ford, General Motors, Volkswagen, Fiat and MG Rover. In the meantime, the Japanese lead by Toyota are gaining market share and increasing their profitability.
The UK automotive supply chain is lagging behind all its competitors: continental Europe, North America and now Asia. Car makers see adoption of TS16949 as a serious commitment to improvement, which has meant that Britain has dropped from 7th (in terms of QS-9000) to 11th (in terms of TS 16949) whilst countries like Germany, France, Italy and Spain have readily adopted it.
Adopting TS 16949 helps suppliers to sell to any VM in two ways. First, because it forces them to adopt best practice tools and they, in effect, get the new quality management standard, ISO 9001:2000 as part of the deal (in reality TS 16949 is ISO 9001:2000 with additional automotive specifics added on). Second, QS-9000 is not as popular with European carmakers.
Rather than re-develop QS-9000, VMs formed the International Automotive Task Force (IATF), which includes Ford, General Motors, DaimlerChrysler, Fiat, Renault, Peugeot, BMW and Volkswagen.
The IATF, together with significant input from Asian manufacturers, brought together the key requirements from existing quality management systems standards, (including QS-9000, VDA6, EAQF, AVSQ, and ISO 9001:2000) to create the new global automotive quality standard ISO/TS 16949:2002.
The ISO/TS 16949:2002 standard was published in March 2002 and is more demanding than QS-9000 because it has been strengthened in many key areas that should benefit both the manufacturer and its customers.
VMs have made it fairly clear that ISO/TS 16949 registration will help suppliers achieve 'preferred supplier' status. QS-9000 is seen as having failed either as a measure of overall supplier performance or as a tool to ensure that quality products are delivered.
The key areas of change are:
Senior management involvement through setting and communicating quality objectives, allocating resource and integrating these into business plans;
Product realisation, which covers the whole process from planning & design, through production, sales, processing, delivery and aftersales service;
Analysis and improvement, where data is used to continually improve product quality and processes;
Supplier development where organisations must demonstrate a stronger commitment to improving their own supply base;
Organisational performance requirements focusing on delivered part quality, on time delivery and customer performance.
Essential elements of QS-9000 have been retained including that the use of reference manuals for:
Production Part Approval Process (PPAP).
Advanced Product Quality Planning and Control Plan (APQP).
Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA).
Measurement Systems Analysis (MSA).
Fundamental Statistical Process Control (SPC).
Quality System Assessment (QSA).
The focus of the compliance audit to ISO/TS 16949:2002 will change from an element audit to a process audit.
A process audit concentrates on customer-oriented processes within the organisation and evaluates the company 's performance against its customers ' requirements.
Overall performance metrics will be based on common measurements, all aimed at the satisfaction of the customers ' needs.
How is ISO/TS 16949 better than QS-9000?
THE VM 'S VIEW:
Registration involves a generally more rigorous assessment, and is better guarantor of supplier performance;
Increased emphasis on customer requirements;
Less bureaucracy at all levels;
Reduced variation in assessment (performance);
Better control of the registration and assessor training process;
Focus on continual improvement;
THE SUPPLIER 'S VIEW:
Increased reciprocal recognition of registration amongst VMs due to clearer and stronger oversight and greater consistency in the registration process;
Avoidance of multiple registration to VDA6, EAQF, AVSQ & QS-9000, thereby avoiding duplication in terms of preparation, documentation and 3rd party audits;
Vocabulary consistent with ISO 9001:2000 and therefore ISO 14001 (Environmental Management System);
Adoption of a process approach, which is more consistent with the way the most effective companies are currently operating;
Increased focus on continual improvement.(end)
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