Postpone IATF 16949 audit due to COVID-19

[Golfman25]

Is it any more dangerous to have an auditor come in than having a customer visit? Are the companies wanting to postpone audits also forbidding customer visits? Looks like some are, some aren't.

Every one of my customer and vendors has sent notices banning any type of visits. We have done the same.

 

[Mikey324]

Is it any more dangerous to have an auditor come in than having a customer visit? Are the companies wanting to postpone audits also forbidding customer visits? Looks like some are, some aren't.

No, it would be the same. We are not accepting customer or supplier visits at this time. Nor are we traveling. Domestically or otherwise. We have postponed everything that isn't critical.

 

[Johnnymo62]

We are no travel, no visitors for everyone.

 

[Mike S.]

We have postponed everything that isn't critical.

Glad to hear it. From what I am seeing too many places that could easily do this aren't.

A local government agency just yesterday had an in-house, in-person meeting with dozens of people when they definitely had the technology to do it virtually. That's just stupid.

 

[Dan M]

I'm the OP. Here is an update. Our CB allowed postponement of the audit by 90 days.

Our audit was supposed to be this week. The timeline is uncanny.

Monday - notified CB were are postponing audit.
-Leadership issues policy banning all visitors.

Tuesday - all employees not critical to production must stay home.

Thursday - receive notification that one of our employees is hospitalized and tested positive for COVID-19.

Friday (today) - our entire facility is shutdown for deep sanitizing. Today would have been the final day of our audit.

 

[Jim Lee]

Hi, our IATF 16949 surveillance audit is this week and our leadership team has requested that I ask our certification body to postpone the audit or see if the non-manufacturing portions of the audit can be done remotely. This is because (1) our company is now prohibiting any non-essential suppliers or contractors from visiting our facility and (2) limiting face-to-face meetings and limiting the number of people together in one meeting room. It will be interesting to see how this all develops.

With the IATF communique that was posted in response to your question, the times are fixed for the waiver durations, and are unrealistically short. Based on China and Italy's timelines, and many other parts of the world still on the front end of this pandemic, I anticipate more revisions by the IATF on this communique. The International Aerospace Quality Group recently published their waivers (see article at simpleque.com for the auto and aero industry updates on Covid-19). The aerospace industry is accepting up to 100% remote or virtual audits based on a risk evaluation by the certification body and the certified client, or at least a portion of the audits conducted remotely until such time an onsite audit can be completed. The aerospace industry has not restricted the duration of the waivers. I suspect the automotive industry will need to do something similar. Everyone is wanting to see what the IAF will do for ISO 9001.

 

[Sidney Vianna]

Everyone is wanting to see what the IAF will do for ISO 9001.

They have communicated it @ IAF Frequently Asked Questions COV-ID-19 Outbreak As dysfunctional as the IAF is, they post FAQ's. They should OBVIOUSLY post an AUTHORITATIVE type document formalizing their positions, but, it seems they are afraid of formalizing anything in a time where conditions are so fluid and, literally, changing by the hour.

 

[batteryguy]

Has anyone tried to reschedule their audit yet? I spoke with our CB last week to postpone our surveillance audit that was scheduled to begin on 3/25, and they were unable to give me a new audit date. They said the next 3 months was already booked, and so many people have canceled audits that they will likely have to hire more auditors to cover them in that time frame.

 

[Golfman25]

Has anyone tried to reschedule their audit yet? I spoke with our CB last week to postpone our surveillance audit that was scheduled to begin on 3/25, and they were unable to give me a new audit date. They said the next 3 months was already booked, and so many people have canceled audits that they will likely have to hire more auditors to cover them in that time frame.

Since IAFT was already short of auditors, this will be a real cluster for a while. They'll need to extend expiration dates and audit windows.

 

[Mikey324]

Since IAFT was already short of auditors, this will be a real cluster for a while. They'll need to extend expiration dates and audit windows.

Yeah, i see real trouble finding enough auditors to keep up, to be honest.