The organization shall require their suppliers of automotive products and services to develop, implement, and improve a quality management system certified to ISO 9001, unless otherwise authorized by the customer [e.g., item a) below], with the ultimate objective of becoming certified to the Automotive QMS Standards. Unless otherwise specified by the customer, the following sequence should be applied to achieve this requirement.
a) compliance to ISO 9001 through second-party audits;
b) certification to ISO 9001 through third-party audits; unless otherwise specified by the customer, suppliers to the organization shall demonstrate conformity to ISO 9001 by maintaining a third-party certification issued by a certification body bearing the accreditation mark of a recognized IAF MLA (Internal Accreditation Forum Multilateral Recognition Arrangement) member and where the accreditation body's main scope includes management system certification to ISO 9001/IEC 17021;
c) certification to ISO 9001 with compliance to other customer-defined QMS requirements (such as Minimum Automotive Quality Management System Requirements for Sup-Tier Suppliers [MAQMSR] or equivalent) through second-party audits;
d) certification to ISO 9001 with compliance to IATF 16949 through second-party audits;
e) certification to 16949 through third-party audits (valid third-party certification of the supplier to IATF 16949 by an IATF 16949-recognized certification body).