RE: the new rules of 5 years heat treat experience:
How does that affect the 3rd party and 2nd party auditors who think they want to audit your HT dept.?
How do we know they are actually qualified other than say they are qualified.
Also is there an explanation what 5 years heat treat experience means. I have been around HT and audited HT systems to TS16949 for over 5 years, but I don't know the technical details. Any info to clarify.
(We haven't been to our purchasing dept to order the new revision yet)
The 5 years was already a requirement in Ford Customer Specific Requirements before the release of the 2nd edition. Not sure, but interview your 3rd party auditor to verify his qualifications. I am not aware of any more detail about qualifications. A metallurgical degree is not a requirement that is written down anywhere.
The 2nd edition allows you to have an assessor team. The team leader is an experienced QMS auditor and a heat treat expert is on the team.
Of course with auditing, one can not audit their own work. I have a client where the heat treat expert is responsible for the induction heat treat process and is the auditee (or assessee) for CQI:9. We decided to put the manager of the met/chem lab on the team as the heat treat expert. In this case, I am available as an outside consultant when questions arise.