Customer Specific Requirements - Which ones are subject to 3rd party audit?

[kreco]

We are a tier 3 supplier to the automotive industry and we have only a couple of customers that require us to be TS-16949 registered who have given us Customer Specific Requirements "to be used with TS-16949", we do however have customers that request that we are ISO 9001:2000 and give us "Supplier Quality Manuals" or something titled along those lines. I track them all in a spreadsheet and review the requirements, my question is which ones are subject to 3rd party audit? I have a TS-16949 answer handbook and it states "all ISO/TS-16949 registrations must include verification that the supplier fully complies with the additional unique requirements of each of its customers that require ISO/TS 16949 registration". Can anyone clarify this for me?

 

[D.Scott]

If you are 16949 registered, all automotive customer specific requirements are part of your TS 16949 system and there must be verification that you comply with all of them.

I am not familiar with the "each of its customers that require ISO/TS 16949 registration" phrase you highlighted but I think if such an exclusionary phrase were used it would be highly controversial.

Has anyone else seen this phrase used?

Dave

 

[Bill Ryan - 2007]

We supply GM, Valeo, Delphi, Harley Davidson, and other automotive customers. Each one of them has "Customer Specific Requirements" which either override a portion of the TS requirements or they are an "enhanced" addition to the requirements. Basically you are responsible to ensure you are following each of your customers that require... most current "specific" requirements. All of those CSR documents are "3rd party auditable".

 

[kreco]

I think I need to rephrase my question...we only have a couple of "major" automotive customers, including Visteon and Delphi (a few others, but none are the actual automakers themselves). These customers have actually given us requirements that state "for use with TS-16949" and they require us to be registered to TS-16949. I understand these are subject to 3rd party audits.

We have various other automotive customers that are in the Supply Chain (they may supply brake system harnesses or gas tank wires etc) and they DO NOT require us to be TS-16949 but only ISO 9001:2000 and they give us various "Quality Manuals" (usually generated by the customer manually and there is no website to go to verify current revisions etc), but they do not state "For use with TS-16949". So should these requirements be subject to 3rd party audit?

 

[D.Scott]

My point was, if you are registered to 16949, all automotive customer specific requirements are subject to audit whether they require you to be registered or not. The non-automotive customer specific requirements would not be subject to audit.

Just a side note here. I have heard that Delphi has re-evaluated their initial supplier mandate for registration to 16949. They now state registration to ISO 9001:2000 and developing to COMPLIANCE to 16949. I can't say for sure but I understood Visteon was taking the same stance. Before you commit to registration, maybe you should double check with them exactly what it is they want.


Dave