Re: Will ISO/TS16949 be aligned to ISO9001:2015 in the future?
The IATF has completed phase one of the development process and finalized the design specification for the revision of the IATF automotive standard.
Efforts are being undertaken to collect data for analysis and potential inclusion into the revised standard. A standardized common survey will be administered by the IATF member national associations to stakeholders in the coming months. Posted on 30 Mar 2015
Interesting wording; This comment came from the IATF web page specifically (link below)
http://www.iatfglobaloversight.org/content.aspx?page=IATF ISO/TS 16949 Revision Workgroup News
Some points to consider when reading this response.
1) The IATF has not adopted ISO 9001:2015 as a replacement for TS-16949, the automotive group will continue with their own technical standard. Their own response 5 Dec 2014 indicates this to be the case.
2) Read the second paragraph which starts with Efforts. This paragraph clearly states "collect data" and "potential inclusion" which are terms whose meaning indicates maybe or we will see. Afterwords, there is discussion concerning a "Survey" being issued to IATF members and stake holders (collecting opinion in order to make determination).
3) After working with legal council, the sticky wicket with this revision is going to be the legal wrangling presented by the text of this standard which opens up potential liabilities which were not part of any of the prior versions. Here is an example of one of those potential liabilities
3.02
interested party
person or organization (3.01) that can affect, be affected by, or perceive themselves to be affected by a decision or activity
The legal opinion, I have been given related to of the definition of Interested Parties, is that it applies to everyone. The operative word here is "Perceive" which is all a person or organization need consider as reason to file suit, with cause.
Consider this, is your competition a person or organization who could perceive themselves affected by a decision or activity of your organization?
Remember the 2015 revision of ISO 9001 MSS, is Risk based, and therefore this type of language has potential risk, especially to the financial status of an organization, it therefore must be considered.
There have been others who have stated that an organization can be sued for near about anything anyway so this text does not matter. However that is simply not an accurate statement. Lawsuits require legal cause and a statement such as the one above (Interested Parties Definition) can quite possibly affect an organizations legal duty of care. I'm not a lawyer and I am not offering a legal opinion, its simply something I observe which my initial investigation and discussion with legal counsel, indicates needs legal consideration. Read up on Tort, Cause in Fact and Proximate Cause, understand duty and breach of duty. To fail to meet the requirements of the definition of "Interested Parties" could be considered a legal breach of duty, its best to get your legal representative to read this proposed version of the standard, prior to accepting liability for its statements.