ISO/TS 16949 8.4.1 Analysis and Use of Data Question

[ianbayne]

I am employed at a Japanese company relatively new to the automobile industry and currently preparing for TS 16949 certification. In-house knowledge of this certification is very limited. Currently a number of questions have arisen regarding 8.4.1 Analysis and Use of Data.

Section 8.4.1 states

"Trends in quality and operational performance must be compared with progress toward objectives and lead to action to support:

• Development of priorities for prompt solutions to customer-related problems
• Determination of key customer-related trends and correlation for status review, decision making, and longer term planning
• An information system for the timely reporting of product information arising from usage"

1) We are unclear as to what sort of non-numerical objectives are commonly employed in regards to sales/marketing. If any one has examples, that would be very helpful.

2) How does one evaluate the progress of non-numerical goals? (For something like rate of failures it would be easy to evaluate a decrease in failures on a percentage basis or the like. For non-numerical goals, however, we are less clear on how this would be done.)

Thank you for any help/advice!

[Howard Atkins]

Why are you asking about non-numerical objectives?

[ianbayne]

In Reply to Parent Post by Howard Atkins

Why are you asking about non-numerical objectives?

Thanks for the reply, Howard. The answer is: company policy, unfortunately. The higher-ups are of the opinion non-numerical objectives will be less restrictive than numerical ones, and our understanding is that either type are acceptable. Are we correct?

In Reply to Parent Post by qusys

This clause is directly linked with 8.4 which is related to the analysis of data.
You should compare trends in quality and operational performance versus your business plans; competitors and industry benchmarks, where practical. Focus on key customer-related trends to prioritize prompt solutions to problems; to determine longer-term planning for performance improvement; and to enhance customer satisfaction.

All this data come from you QMS and activities, for example you could evaluate the potential field failures based upon the perception of your customer and then translate this important information one of the input of your customer process, with the aim to improve the supplied product.

The three items mentioned in the bullets of this clause are product related.
The process of data collection and analysis is functional to the periodical QMS mgmt review.

Performance indicators to measure the effectiveness of processes for data collection and analysis could include , for example, reduction in cycle time to gather and evaluate data; reduction in inaccurate and incomplete data; increase in improvement opportunities obtained from data analysis.
Hope this helps

Thanks, qusys, in particular for the examples from the last paragraph. Any ideas regarding non-numerical goals? Or is it just more common (easier?) to set goals involving numbers? (Person opinion: a lot easier.)

[qusys]

In Reply to Parent Post by ianbayne

Thanks for the reply, Howard. The answer is: company policy, unfortunately. The higher-ups are of the opinion non-numerical objectives will be less restrictive than numerical ones, and our understanding is that either type are acceptable. Are we correct?



Thanks, qusys, in particular for the examples from the last paragraph. Any ideas regarding non-numerical goals? Or is it just more common (easier?) to set goals involving numbers? (Person opinion: a lot easier.)

I think that trying to set numeric goals is easier and also more usefull, because , if well set, they do not save a room for interpretation.
The difficult thing is to build them. However, even if you do a survey on customer perception, then the next step is to translate it in 3-4 "big items" with number and percentages.
Take into account that clause 8.4.1 requires linkages between data analysis and customer satisfaction ( as per clause 8.2.1). Besides, data analysis relating to the customer alsoneeds to be linked to longer term planning .
Usage of informative system, as requested by the clause, is key in this sense.

[Howard Atkins]

In Reply to Parent Post by ianbayne

Thanks for the reply, Howard. The answer is: company policy, unfortunately. The higher-ups are of the opinion non-numerical objectives will be less restrictive than numerical ones, and our understanding is that either type are acceptable. Are we correct?



Thanks, qusys, in particular for the examples from the last paragraph. Any ideas regarding non-numerical goals? Or is it just more common (easier?) to set goals involving numbers? (Person opinion: a lot easier.)

The standard says " The quality objectives shall be measurable and consistent with the quality policy. "
Whilst non-numerical objectives can be measurable in a GO NOGO way to me this is playing with words and an idea "The higher-ups are of the opinion non-numerical objectives will be less restrictive than numerical ones,"

To me shows a misunderstanding of the use of the standard.

The goals are for your management to see whether their processes are effective and if you are achieving what you planned to achieve.

From non-numerical objectives how will you actually be able to do the following?

"Trends in quality and operational performance must be compared with progress toward objectives and lead to action to support:

Development of priorities for prompt solutions to customer-related problems
Determination of key customer-related trends and correlation for status review, decision making, and longer term planning
An information system for the timely reporting of product information arising from usage"

which is NOT for the auditor but for your business to succeed.

I would suggest that they forget about certification as there appears to be a lack of management commitment

[ianbayne]

Thanks again for the replies, guys. I am finding this forum to be extremely helpful, even for us newbs

In Reply to Parent Post by Howard Atkins

I would suggest that they forget about certification as there appears to be a lack of management commitment

Unfortunately, several of our recent customers require this certification as a pre-requisite to doing business.

[Howard Atkins]

But the customers want it done properly, not as convenient to the higher-ups.

Why are they worried about the restrictiveness?

Because they do not intend to achieve customer satisfaction?

[ianbayne]

In Reply to Parent Post by Howard Atkins

Why are they worried about the restrictiveness?

Because they do not intend to achieve customer satisfaction?

I've been told the president of our company is worried some of our employees may lie or fudge the data in order to provide satisfactory responses. I couldn't say, however, whether this is the actual reason or only a justification.