Abstract: The International Automotive Task Force (IATF) was initiated in order to provide improved quality standards of automotives to customers across the globe. The organization consists of some of the world’s largest and well-renowned automobile manufacturers in the world.
Introduction: The International Automotive Task Force (IATF) was formed in 1997. Its initial members were the Automotive Industry Action Group (AIAG) from the United States, the Association of the German Automotive Industry (VDA) representing automotive manufacturers from Germany, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) from the United Kingdom, the Comité des Constructeurs Français d'Automobiles (CCFA) from France and Associazione Nazionale Fra Industrie Automobilistiche representing Italian automotive manufacturers.
The IATF with cooperation with the ISO Technical Committee TC 176, developed the first internationally harmonized standard for automotive suppliers quality systems – the ISO/TS 16949. The ISO/TS 16949 was released in the year 1999 (Heinloth, Stefan, 2000).
Formation: During the early 90’s, the automotive manufacturers around the world, created their own standards and set of requirements for their suppliers to improve supplier quality and provide better products. The Automotive Industry Action Group (AIAG) in the United States released their own set of requirements for their supplier’s quality systems, called the QS-9000. Automotive manufacturers from Europe developed similar standards for their supplier’s quality systems too such as the VDA 6.1 released by the Association of the German Automotive Industry (VAD). Similar standards were also released by the British, French and Italian automotive industry associations (Heinloth, Stefan, 2000).
The Automotive industry has since become a large and dynamic market globally. The number of competitors (including the rise of the automotive manufacturers from Japan and South Korea) and the mergers between automotive manufacturers had made it difficult for suppliers. These international developments would require many suppliers need multiple registrations to the various automotive standards created by the different associations. Hence, in the late 1990’s, the International Automotive Task Force (IATF) was formed.
ISO/TS 16949: The ISO/TS 16949 was prepared by the IATF with close cooperation from the ISO Technical Committee TC 176. It was created to harmonize the country-specific regulations of the supplier’s quality systems. It is based on the ISO 9001 which specifies the basic requirements for a quality management system (QMS) that an organization must be able to fulfill in order to demonstrate its ability to consistently provide products and/or services that enhance customer satisfaction and also meet the applicable statutory and regulatory requirements (Tsim, Y. C.; Yeung, V.W.S.; Leung, et. all., 2002).
The aim of this standard is to improve the system and process quality in order to increase customer satisfaction, problems and risks identification and elimination and to examine taken corrections and preventive measures for supplier’s and manufacturer’s effectiveness (Kartha, C.P., 2004).
Importance of IATF: The IATF was established for four main reasons –
1. The development of a decision in regards to the International supplier’s quality systems, primarily focusing on the direct suppliers of the member companies in the IATF.
2. To provide a global consistency by developing policies and procedures for the IATF third party registration scheme.
3. To provide training and support for the ISO/TS 16949 standard requirements and the IATF registration scheme.
4. The establishment of alliances with appropriate governing bodies to support the IATF objectives.
Furthermore, the IATF’s development of the ISO/TS 16949 standard is a well-structured international automotive standard that heavily emphasizes on process-driven compliance to provide assurance to the control of the product and processes and to provide a quality management system (QMS) to serve as a foundation for day-to-day improvement. The members of the IATF are committed to the IATF vision of “A single global automotive standard and registration process”.
The IATF Member Organization Signatories
1. Automotive Industry Action Group (AIAG)
2. Associazione Nazionale Fra Industrie Automobilistiche (ANFIA)
3. Bavarian Motor Works (BMW) Group
4. Chrysler Group
5. Daimler AG
6. FIAT Group Automobile
7. French Automotive Equipment Industries Association (FIEV)
8. Ford Motor Company
9. General Motors (GM) Company
10. PSA Peugeot Citroen
11. Renault SA
12. Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT)
13. Association of the German Automotive Industry (VDA)
14. Volkswagen AG
IATF Oversight Offices: The IATF has six global IATF registration scheme administration offices located respectively in China, France, Germany, Italy, United Kingdom and United States of America. These Oversight offices were established for the following reasons –
1. To conducts office assessments and witness the auditing of the certification body
2. To provide support through the issuing of Sanctioned Interpretations (Sis) and Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
3. Monitor timelines and accuracy
4. Monitor certification body activities
5. Provide support to third party certification body auditors
6. Handle application procedures for new certification bodies.
Reference(s):
1. Heinloth, Stefan. (2000). Good-bye QS-9000. Available: http://elsmar.com/pdf_files/Good_Bye_QS9000.pdf. Last accessed 28th
2. IATF Global Oversight. (2011). About the International Automotive Task Force (IATF). Available: IATF Global Oversight. Last accessed 28th Jan 2012.
3. IATF Global Oversight. (2011). IATF Leadership Commitment - 2011. Available: IATF Global Oversight. Last accessed 28th Jan 2012.
4. IATF Global Oversight. (2011). About IATF Oversight Offices. Available: IATF Global Oversight. Last accessed 29th Jan 2012.
5. Kartha, C.P. (2004). "A comparison of ISO 9000:2000 quality system standards, QS9000, ISO/TS 16949 and Baldrige criteria". The TQM Magazine Volume 16 (Emerald Group Publishing Limited) Number 5: 336.
6. Tsim, Y.C.; Yeung, V. W. S.; Leung, et all (2002), "An adaptation to ISO 9001: 2000 for certified organisations",Managerial Auditing Journal 17 (5).
7. Wikipedia. (2012). ISO/TS 16949. Available: Wikipedia. Last accessed 28th Jan
No comments:
Post a Comment