TS16949 Interpertation

[jrharris20]

Currently getting ready for TS upgrade. Talking with current registar about issues and came across an issue that is causing the auditor some heart burn. We are a division of a Japanese corporation but are considered a free standing company in the USA. We are QS certified and our parent company just became QS certified. In going to TS there is a question from the area of design. We get help from our parent company and in some cases are simply given the tooling and instructed to begin supplying product to the customer. The auditor is concerned that we are not considered design responsible under the TS standard. We supply to all auto OEM's and are design responsible in this country. Initially we were taking the approach that we considered our parent a sub-contractor to us in the sense that they did design work and even produced the tooling. I am trying to figure out how we can be considered design responsible in this situation. Could we simply by definition take the stand that we are the controlling function from a design standpoint and simply using our parent as a subcontractor? Any help or interpertation would be appreciated. By the way, we produce plastic and metal fasteners as well as interior assemblies of the IP.

Thanks for any help.

 

[Sam]

jrharris20 said,
"The auditor is concerned that we are not considered design responsible under the TS standard."

To be design responsible in the eyes of TS2, you need to be able to meet the requirements of para. 7.3 Design and Development. Then you can,to some degree, consider yourself design responsible. If not, then I would treat your parent as a supplier.