posted 07 May 2000 08:11 AM               

From: Dirk Van Putten [email protected]

>What I heard from our QS 9000 external auditor (BVQI), just one month
>ago, was that the criteria for lead auditor course on the TS 16496 is
>not defined yet, and that so far only one company in Spain was TS
>certified but their certificate was not valid due to the audit criteria
>not being fully recognized yet. Maybe this has changed now, but he told
>us that by the end of the year this issue is going to be finalized.

The most credible, public source of information regarding TS 16949 is the International Automotive Oversight Bureau at www.iaob.org.

Excerpt from the IAOB website:

"The IATF is an "ad hoc" group of automotive manufacturers and their respective trade associations, formed to provide improved quality products to automotive customers worldwide. Specifically, the purposes for which the IATF was established are:

1.To develop a consensus around international fundamental quality system requirements, primarily for the participating companies' direct suppliers of production materials, product or service parts or finishing services (e.g. heat treating, painting and plating). These requirements shall also be available for other interested parties in the automotive industry.

2.To develop policies and procedures for the common IATF third party registration scheme to ensure consistency worldwide.

3.To provide for appropriate training to support the ISO/TS 16949 requirements and the IATF registration scheme.

4.To establish formal liaisons with appropriate bodies to support IATF objectives."

I believe the only official training for external, third party auditors for TS 16949 is listed on this website. The supplier of the training is the Automotive Industry Action Group (AIAG) / Plexus. All TS 16949 publications that are available, are available from the AIAG (just like it is for QS-9000).There are contact names and a fax mail box phone number to which you can fax questions like the question above. I would suggest getting your answers from the IAOB.

As of 4/27/2000, the AIAG reports that the TS 16949 Customer Specific Manual (DaimlerChrysler and Ford Only) and the TS 16949 Automotive Certification Scheme - Rules for Achieving IATF Recognition have not been published. So if you are a supplier to DaimlerChrysler or Ford, it would be difficult to be audited or to do the audit if one does not know their specific requirements. I guess that leaves only General Motors.

All of this information matches my notes from an official TS 16949 Roll Out Workshop that I attended in Novi, Michigan in December of 1999. The workshop was sponsored by "The Big 3" with representatives present from each company.