The International Automotive Task Force (IATF) and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) have announced that the technical specification for automotive sector quality management systems, ISO/TS 16949:2009, will be replaced in October by IATF 16949:2016.

ISO/TS 16949, one of the automotive industry’s most widely used international standards for quality management, was first developed in 1999 by the IATF in conjunction with ISO’s technical committee for quality management, ISO/TC 176. Since then, it has risen to be one of the most widely used international standards in the automotive industry, and aims to harmonize the different assessment and certification systems in the global automotive supply chain.

IATF 16949:2016 will supersede and replace the current ISO/TS 16949, defining the requirements of a quality management system for organizations in the automotive industry. It will be aligned with and refer to the most recent version of ISO’s quality management systems standard, ISO 9001:2015. IATF 16949:2016 will fully respect ISO 9001:2015’s structure and requirements. IATF 16949:2016 is not a stand-alone quality management standard, but is implemented as a supplement to, and in conjunction with, ISO 9001:2015.

IATF has published a guidance document to help organizations transition from ISO/TS 16949 to IATF 16949. See related story here. The document can be downloaded here.

IATF will ensure continued alignment with ISO 9001 by maintaining strong cooperation with ISO, through its participation in ISO/TC176. For more information about ISO see www.iso.org.

For more information about ISO 9001:2015, visit www.iso.org/iso/iso_9000. More details regarding IATF 16949:2016 can be obtained from the IATF website at www.iatfglobaloversight.org.