An Effective Guide to get IATF 16949 certification
By: Akash Urs
Tags: Audit, Iso 9001 Certification, Quality Management, Training, Iso Certification

For the automotive sector, trust and security are two crucial terms for customers. It is not easy to build trust among customers. IATF 16949 certification provides a secure and quality management system for the company to help increase the quality of products by improving the performance.

What is the IATF 16949 certification?

The IATF certification is a standard made to provide a quality management system in the automotive industry. IATF 16949 certification is a subsidiary standard of (international standard for organization) ISO 9001:2015. Since ISO 9001 covers a wide range of businesses across industries, IATF was made to have a specialized standard for the automotive industry.

How to get certified?

There are several guidelines that industries require to get IATF 16949 certification. However, getting the IATF certification is not an easy task. As you know that the IATF standard is a subsidiary of the ISO 9001 certification, you also need to comply with the basic rules of the ISO 9001.

However, that does not mean you have to get ISO certification also again but you have to take care of the requirement necessary for the IATF. Moreover, if you have already certified with the ISO 9001 certification, then you can focus on the IATF requirements only.

Here are the steps involved to get certified with the IATF 16949:

1- Gain knowledge — First you have to gain some knowledge about IATF 16949 certification. Learn about the eligibility and criteria for the certification then move forward.

2- Gap analysis — Next you need to identify what you are lacking. As the IATF certification requires an ongoing quality management system (QMS), make a QMS, and identify the gaps.

3- Create a plan- Having a plan is a must before moving forward. Make a well-organized plan to get everything done for the certification.

4- Aware of your employees — for an effective strategy towards getting an IATF certification, it is required to provide knowledge to your employees about the IATF. Start educating them through meetings and presentations about the IATF.

5- Documentation — Now is the time for the documentation. Start making documents necessary for the certification like IATF 16949 quality manuals, procedures, and forms.

6- Improve QMS — Once you are done will all the formalities, start implementing the changes to your QMS. Keep following the guidelines for the next three months necessary for the certification and check whether everything is going as per the plans.

7- Auditing QMS — Keep checking how your quality management system is working. Keep doing Internal audits to check the gaps and implement changes to get better.

8- Registration audit — Once you are done with the registration, contact a registrar to archive your registration by auditing it.

The automotive quality management system is quality based strategic decision that minimizes the risk and also improved the quality of products and services. To meet the goals and objectives of the customer improvement in the process at each stage is required continually. Top management plays an important role in the auditing process.

Kindly stay tuned with us on Ursindia to know more insights into the Automotive Quality management system.