Satellite operations in Eastern Europe - TS16949 - Injection moulding company

[Shamus]

Hi everyone, I have been getting stuff from this forum for some time now but have never actively contributed.
I have not seen this subject on the forum before but apologies if I am going over old ground.
We are a medium sized injection moulding company. Our customer base is slowly moving to Eastern Europe and we intend to open a small manufacturing facility in Slovakia. The new site will be run from here in the UK.
We are TS 16949 certificated and intend the new site to be as well. I was wondering how onerous getting the cert would be?
Can the new site fall under our present system? Does it have to run for 12 months before applying?
Our auditing body can probably give most answers, but I was wondering if any of you guys have had first hand experience.

[tyker]

Hi Shamus.
Good luck with Slovakia. I'm doing a similar exercise in Poland.

I'm intending to simply extend our UK systems to the satellite plant (process design will be carried out in the UK and we'll maintain responsibility for PPAP, customer complaints etc). The documents need a bit of editing and the local quality person will carry out the translation. I just need to ensure the change control runs in parallel.

My understanding of the TS rules is that the plant needs 12 months of records before gaining full registration but can get a "letter of conformity" before that. You can put the application in at any time but watch the certification body's rules, with some you might forfeit the application fee if the assessment doesn't take place within, say, a year. I'm finding things move slowly.

Some certification bodies now have local assessors (BSI, for instance, has people in Poland) and may want to use them. For continuity, you may want to insist on your UK lead auditor controlling things. Don't forget to specify what language is to be used for the assessment and specify who the contact people are within the company. In my case, the assessment will be conducted by the UK lead auditor with a local team member. The local will then do the routine surveillance. I want all arrangements made via our UK office so that I can maintain control.

Feel free to ask any other questions you may have. I'm sure others on the Cove have experience of moving production offshore. I may not have all the answers but I know lots of the problems.