TS 16949 Cost Benefit Analysis

[deniser]

My boss gave me the task of generating a cost benefit analysis for going 16949 at our site. I have until tomorrow to finish this. We are registered to 9001:2000 and have been for 2 years with 0 deviations. We have a very rudimentary APQP system in place. I can calculate costs to get us certified, I think, but there have to be ongoing costs hidden away. There's always a catch to these things. We currently sell 2 products that we bought from another company into automotive and are considering a new product. We build semiconductors. We were just audited Friday by a customer that deliberately left the market due to the costing issues. They told us that there were costs associated with monitoring and auditing suppliers and significant lost opportunity costs in making process improvements, where they had to wait over a year from their customer for approval. Anyone know anything else we should be aware of? Thanks. BTW- the QE group consists of me. How many people are realistically required to keep up with the paperwork?

 

[tomvehoski]

TS16949 is built on ISO 9001: 2000, so it would require upgrading your system, not building a new one. If you already have APQP in place, you have covered the biggest addition in the standard.

Your costs would increase for audits since the auditor day requirements are higher for 16949. Exact number of days would depend on the size of your company. It is hard to say how much you would have to put into upgrading your systems without knowing their status now. Also the size of your company, complexity of processes, etc. will dictate how much time and effort is required to maintain the system.

If I had to force a guess, I would estimate 125 to 175 hours to implement an upgrade to 16949.

If your customers are requiring 16949 or you would see a big marketing advantage by having it, I would recommend upgrade. If ISO 9001 will satisfy your customers, 16949 may not be worth the cost and headaches.

Tom

 

[Marc]

It's been a while since this thread was started, and I thought maybe now some folks might be able to, or willing to, comment on (data if possible ), TS 16949 Cost Benefit Analysis.

Anyone with any numbers or discussion comments?