ISO/TS 16949: New Rules – Audit Planning

Now that the effective date is upon us, we have summarized one significant change for audit planning, as well as the impact this will have on your organization.

Details – Audit Planning
(according to Rules, 4th edition,  chapter 5.7.1 and 5.7.2)

UL DQS Inc. requires the organization to provide the following information as a basis for audit planning:

• The client’s quality management system documentation, including evidence about conformity to ISO/TS 16949 requirements and showing the linkages to, interfaces and interactions with any remote support functions
•  Customer and internal performance data since the previous audit
•  Customer satisfaction and Customer complaint summary since the previous audit, including  the approval of latest customer reports and/or scorecards
•  Identification of any customer special status (condition?) since the previous audit
•  Notification about any new customers since the previous audit
• Results of internal audits and management reviews since the previous audit.

The UL DQS Inc. audit team will analyze the required information (see the bullet points above) to determine critical areas to be prioritized based upon risk to the customer, performance trends, and critical processes.

A summary of the client’s performance for the items provided by the client (see the bullet points above), the result of their analysis, and identified priorities will be recorded and retained as part of the audit records as minimum content. One member of the audit team will develop a process-oriented audit plan for each audit (initial, surveillance, recertification, special, and transfer audits).

An audit plan prepared according to the required information shall:

• Identify a minimum of one (1) hour on site, prior to the Opening meeting, for verification of changes to current and internal performance data, including a review of current online customer reports and /or customer scorecards

• Identify the name of client processes to be audited
• Identify when the interactions with remote functions will be audited
• Identify each manufacturing process to be audited and respective shifts
• Identify when onsite reviews of corrective actions arising from previous audits on site will be verified
• Identify which customer-specific requirements have to be audited
• Record the total number of hours audited per day and the total number of audit days per audit team member

In creating the process-oriented audit plan, the audit trail shall be scheduled in such a way as to avoid unnecessary duplication of visits to the same process.

If the organization does not provide the required information, the de-certification process shall be initiated.

Please stay tuned for our upcoming webinars in May where we will expand on Audit Planning aspects of TS Rules 4th Edition changes.