ISO 9000 or QS-9000? Small company

[Adam Cilli]

I work for a small company. We're getting invoved with automotive supplier. We know we will eventually obtain a QS-9000 certification.
Should we pursue ISO-9001 first or go straight fo QS-9000?

 

[BWoods]

Originally posted by Adam Cilli:
Should we pursue ISO-9001 first or go straight fo QS-9000? [/B]

Well Adam, that all depends. I would say you have to look at the culture of your company, their "quality maturity". If they are ready to jump straight to QS - great. If not, ISO can serve as a nice stepping stone. You also have to look at how much time you have. Several factors are involved in making that choice.

By the way - do you sell (or will you) internationally? If you do/will - then go for TS not QS. No sense going ISO to QS to TS, if you can help it.

 

[Adam Cilli]

Yes, we do sell internationally.
Could you please tell me more about TS?
Thanks

 

[pdboilermaker]

ISO/TS 16949 is the new "world automotive" quality standard. Currently, it is a technical specification but nearly all automotive manufactures will accept it. It is essentially QS-9000 from the big three mixed with a little, and I mean little, VDA 6.1 from the german automakers.
The asian automakers plan to indorse it in the near future.

As for the big three, they will accept QS or TS your choice. In my humble opinion QS will be dead instead of reprinting it to include the new revision to iso 9000:2000.

Go TS, it is the future for automotive

 

[Marc]

How many people in your company?

Make your plan for ISO/TS 16949. As some point in your plan you will be ISO compliant. If, at that time, you want to register to ISO then do so and continue on with your plan to achieve TS compliance. For financial reasons you may just want to postpone registering to ISO9K and do the whole thing when you reach TS compliance.

Where you are: Ground Zero
Where you have to be: TS registered
Milestone 1: ISO9001 conformance

Has your customer asked you to persue QS registration?

 

[BWoods]

Originally posted by Adam Cilli:
Yes, we do sell internationally.
Could you please tell me more about TS?
Thanks

As you see from everyone else, go TS.

Purchase spec and checklist (like QSA) from AIAG. Obviously, that is the best way to get to know the TS spec = get your own copy, start reading, and mark it up!