ISO/TS 16949:2002 is an ISO Technical Specification, which aligns existing American (QS-9000), German (VDA6.1), French (EAQF) and Italian (AVSQ) automotive quality systems standards within the global automotive industry.

Together with ISO 9001:1994, ISO/TS 16949 specifies the quality system requirements for the design/development, production, installation and servicing of automotive related products. In addition, there are customer specific requirements that are required by individual subscribing vehicle manufacturers.

The ISO/TS 16949 was jointly developed by the IATF members and submitted to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) for approval and publication. The document is a common automotive quality system requirements catalog based on ISO 9001:2000, AVSQ (Italian), EAQF (French), QS-9000 (U.S.) and VDA6.1 (German) automotive catalogs. This document, coupled with customer-specific requirements defines quality system requirements for use in the automotive supply chain.

The IATF has developed a common registration scheme for supplier 3rd party registration to the ISO/TS 16949. The registration scheme includes third party auditor qualifications and common rules for consistent global registration. Some of the benefits of the IATF registration scheme include:

- improved product and process quality
- additional confidence for global sourcing
- reassignment of supplier resources to quality improvement
- common quality system approach in the supply chain for supplier/subcontractor development and consistency
- reduction in multiple 3rd party registrations.

The ISO/TS 16949 does not replace AVSQ, EAQF, QS-9000 or VDA6.1. The document represents an option for suppliers, unless required by your customer. (More details are provided under the OEM Customer-Specific Requirements, IATF Communiques and OEM Communiques

The International Automotive Oversight Bureau (http://www.iaob.org) is an International Automotive Task Force (IATF) oversight office. The IAOB is a Michigan Corporation; members include Daimler Chrysler, Ford Motor Company, General Motors and the Automotive Industry Action Group (AIAG).

The International Automotive Oversight Bureau (IAOB) was established to:

- Implement and manage the ISO/TS 16949 registration scheme oversight activities on behalf of the IATF.

- Manage and coordinate with the IATF European Oversight Office to ensure global consistency of the ISO/TS 16949 registration scheme.

- Support the IATF in the pursuit of global harmonization with other automotive manufacturers.

- Develop and maintain a central IATF database of strategic information to assist in the management of the registration scheme.

Moody International has been accredited and contracted under IATF to conduct Supplier Quality Management System Certification to ISO/TS 16949:2002.

See http://www.iaob.org/certif_bodies/certif_bodies.html for complete list of all accredit3ed and contracted certitfication bodies involved in ISO/TS 16949:2002 3rd Party Certification