Qualified for TS16949?

[Steven Truchon]

During our last QS surveillance party the auditor informed us that we may not qualify to be TS certified. We had fully intended to transition but now we are not sure what is what. I can understand that a company with no automotive customers might not be able to seek certification "just-in-case", but we are told that only if our automotive customer(s) require us to be certified, are we qualified to do so. We are a tier 2/3 division with 2 of our 7 divisions being tier 1 suppliers. I am waiting for a call back from our registrar for clarification.
Any thoughts from anyone on this?

 

[Steven Truchon]

As I suspected

Our registrar did contact me with the info. Because we are in the automotive supply chain we "qualify" to seek TS certification. Because we are tier 2/3 we are not required to do this. ISO9K:2K is sufficient.

He also added that any companies that supply directly to Chrysler are required to be ISO14001 certified by Jan 1, 2003 or their QS or TS status will be put on probation.

 

[M Greenaway]

Steve

Are you saying that you can only get TS certification if one of your customers mandates it ?

 

[Steven Truchon]

No, not at all. We had an auditor tell us what you just asked. I contacted our registrar and they clarified that as long as we are in the automotive supply chain, providing product or value added services, we can seek TS certification.

For instance, in QS9000, a freight company that has no role in mfg or adding value to the parts, could become certified. TS does not permit that same freight company to seek certification.

I dont know where the auditor got the angle of this requiring customer mandate.

 

[db]

Applicability of TS

A couple of thoughts here. First of all, if your registrar says it doesn’t apply to you find out if the registrar is approved by the IAOB. There are only 48 approved registrars world-wide. You can find out by visiting the IAOB website at: http://www.iaob.org/. I have heard that some of the unapproved registrars are telling their clients that TS does not apply, when in some cases it does. So be careful here. -- (added after post)

The second thought is I have heard (and read somewhere) that TS is only applicable where your customer subscribes to it. This backs the claim that your customer must mandate it before you can become registered to it. If I find the quote, I’ll post it (unless someone beats me to it).

As a third thought, I have heard from several of my registrar contacts that they were directed not to pass any organization that does not conduct internal audits by process.

 

[M Greenaway]

db

With regard to your last comment, how on earth can they determine this - everything is a process !!

 

[db]

Process auditing

Good question Martin, and I'm not real clear, however, the standard might give us a clue in 8.2.2.2, which states that "each manufacturing process" must be audited. If the direction is only for manufacturing processes, it might be a bit easier. However, we could place everything into fairly broad processes such as; the sales process, the shipping process, the planning process, etc. I guess.............