IATF 16949: 2016 & ISO 9001: 2015 Quality Management Systems Upgrade

Here is some very good advice on migrating to the new 16949 standard.

When you are looking at upgrading your management systems to meet the new requirements, you really need a solid approach to the project ahead. One important piece of advice that we have learned from experience is that when resources are needed for a project like this, it is critical to obtain the resources at the beginning of the project. If you are able to muddle your way through the process and achieve registration to the new standard which the hopes of finding resources to make the necessary improvement to the management system after certification, you will likely be disappointed. Here are some additional suggestions to the approach to the project:

1. Decided if you are going to re-align your system to match the layout, numbering and terminology of the new standard. Our suggestion is to align with the new standard and terminology since the new layout will most likely be consistent for the foreseeable future. It is also consistent with the Environmental and Safety standards and can be more easily integrated
2. Review the new standard to determine the processes and procedures required so that you can compare this list to your current system
3. Review your current procedure and decide:
   1. Which procedures / processes you like and that add value to your organization – you should keep these
   2. Which procedures you feel are necessary or required, but where you are unhappy with the current documentation. These should be reworked to be more accurate or useful
   3. Which procedures you find no value in retaining. These should be eliminated, or reworked into a current document where there is a limited portion of the document that is useful
4. Train, Release, implement the new or revised procedures as they are developed to help build history as you work, as opposed to releasing a whole new system at once. This will make the implementation project go more smoothly.
5. Audit your implementation including efficiency and effectiveness as new / revised processes are used within the system shortly after implementation. This provides feedback and can help to adjust the remaining development and implementation process.