The International Automotive Task Force (IATF) is an "ad hoc" group of automotive manufacturers and their respective trade associations, formed to provide improved quality products to automotive customers worldwide. ISO/TS 16949 was jointly developed by IATF members. This document is a quality system requirements catalog based on ISO 9001:2000 and specific requirements from the automotive sector. ISO/TS, Coupled with customer-specific requirements, defines quality system requirements for the entire automotive supply chain. The new Rules for Achieving IATF Recognition 3rd Edition, issued by the IATF in October, are aimed at increasing transparency and designed to align this standard with current ISO 17021:2006 efforts to harmonize rules for third party certification. The result is a more user friendly document with a clear and concise summary in one paragraph per certification activity and per certification step, whereas before, related rules were often scattered across four or five pages.

Changes to ISO/TS 16949 primarily affect three main areas: auditor rotation and certification transfers and suspensions. Many of the underlying principles of these rule changes are already integrated into Bureau Veritas Certification systems. Although their impacts on Bureau Veritas Certification and its clients are clearly significant, these clarifications will certainly bring positive benefits as they are intended to address problems encountered in the implementation of the initial rules and remove any risk of misinterpretation and consequently ensure the highest quality of service.

Below are the primary impacts for our clients:

How does auditor rotation work?

The idea of rotating auditors is designed to ensure auditor impartiality. For example, in agreements signed between Bureau Veritas Certification and its clients, a clause must state the client may not refuse the presence of a Bureau Veritas internal witness auditor. In addition, Bureau Veritas Certification must appoint at least one auditor from the initial certification audit team to participate in all surveillance audits of the mandatory three-year audit cycle. For each subsequent recertification and surveillance audit, different auditors must be used.

What will be required to transfer a certification?

Regarding certification transfers to Bureau Veritas Certification, prior to the start of the transfer audit, the following conditions must be met: 1) transfer is not permitted if the client organization has had a certification transfer in the past 3 years; 2) the existing certificate must be valid; 3) any existing nonconformities shall be 100% resolved; 4) no IATF OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) special status condition is allowed; e) there can be no suspended, cancelled or withdrawn status and 5) the client organization must provide a copy of the last audit report and all findings to Bureau Veritas Certification..

What are the changes which affect certification suspensions?

To illustrate changes intended to make the rules fairer and less onerous for clients, in the event of a suspension or withdrawal of a certificate within a corporate audit scheme, now the suspension or withdrawal shall only apply to a client’s affected site(s). In the past, for a client with multiple sites, when one site failed to achieve recertification, all other client sites lost theirs too. This is no longer the case.

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