What is IATF 16949 & Who Needs To Comply?
What is IATF 16949?
IATF 16949:2016 is an internationally acknowledged standard for quality management for the automotive sector. It was developed by IATF in partnership with ISO and integrates with ISO 9001:2015.
Who Needs To Comply with IATF 16949?
All businesses that participate in the automotive supply chain need to comply, which includes:
(1) Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3 suppliers
(2) Manufacturers of components, assemblies, and parts for automotive OEMs
(3) Companies dealing with embedded software, electronics, or sub-systems for vehicles
Note: Often, compliance is required by OEMs (GM, Ford, VW, Toyota, etc.) from their suppliers.
DMS & QMS Features for IATF 16949:2016 Compliance
Document Management System (DMS) Features for IATF 16949:2016 Compliance
For compliance with IATF 16949, businesses need to maintain effective oversight over documents by controlling:
(1) Document Control: Use of the latest approved documents is ensured through version control, approval workflows, and access restrictions.
(2) Retention & Retrieval: For audits and traceability, a structured retrieval system allows for the quick retrieval of records (design documents, control plans, inspection reports, etc.).
(3) Change Management: Procedures, work instructions, and product definitions must be systematically altered to track changes made over time.
(4) Audit Trails: Complete visibility of access and modification logs detailing the document or information accessed, modified, and the timestamp.
(5) Security & Integrity: Critical documents must maintain confidentiality, non-alterable integrity, and backup.
Quality Management System (QMS) Features for IATF 16949:2016 Compliance
While IATF 16949 builds on ISO 9001, it adds automotive-specific QMS elements, including:
(1) Risk-Based Thinking: Recognize and reduce hazards in procedures and products.
(2) Customer-Specific Requirements (CSRs): Complement and monitor OEM-specific standards for quality.
(3) Production Part Approval Process (PPAP): Keep track of part submission documentation.
(4) Control Plans & FMEAs: Structured documentation and version tracking for quality planning documents.
(5) Corrective & Preventive Actions (CAPA): Monitor and track non-conformances, underlying causes, and remedial actions as part of Corrective & Preventive Actions (CAPA).
(6) Internal Audits & Management Reviews: Track audit schedules, reports, findings, and follow-up actions.
(7) Supplier Quality Management: Assess and record supplier quality approvals and performance.
(8) KPIs & Continual Improvement: Record and track performance indicators and quality goals.
How LuitBiz DMS + QMS Helps for IATF 16949:2016 Compliance
LuitBiz DMS for IATF 16949:2016 Compliance
LuitBiz DMS supports IATF compliance by:
(1) Managing and securing all versions of technical files, SOPs, and quality records
(2) Automating approval workflows and audit trails
(3) Enabling quick retrieval of documents during audits
LuitBiz QMS for IATF 16949:2016 Compliance
LuitBiz QMS helps in ensuring IATF compliance by:
(1) Offering ability to create and manage forms for CAPA, Audit, Risk, FMEA, Change Control, Deviation, and Supplier Quality.
(2) Ensuring process standardization and continuous improvement tracking through reports.
(3) Mapping each SOP to traceable, reportable quality forms that are traceable from submission to implementation.
What SMB Automobile Manufacturers Do for Document Compliance for IATF 16949 & What Are the Challenges?
Current Process
Challenges With the current process
How LuitBiz DMS + QMS helps
Complex Manual & Digital Docmentation: Companies use a mix of manual paper-based processes and basic digital tools (like spreadsheets or shared drives) to track compliance documents, though this is increasingly seen as risky and inefficient.
Manual Errors & Lost Documents: Manual processes lead to misplaced files, missed deadlines, and compliance violations. Additionally, documents stored in various storage devices in silos make it impossible to retrieve the right version of the document when required.
Easy & Centralized Storage and Retrieval Of Documents with Audit Trail: LuitBiz DMS ensures easy and fast retrieval of documents. LuitBiz QMS ensures that the correct controlled copies of the documents are distributed to different stakeholders with complete audit trail of the usage of these documents.
Using Off-the-shelf DMS & QMS solutions: Automobile companies use off-the-shelf DMS and QMS software that are not integrated. They have to spend a lot of time managing documents and quality procedures in two different systems
Limited Customization of existing DMS & QMS Software: Off-the-shelf solutions may not fit unique manufacturing processes or scale with business growth of automobile companies. These software are not integrated and customization can be a very costly affair.
Highly Customizable & Integrated: LuitBiz DMS & QMS are highly customizable and can be modified to meet the unique needs of the automobile manufacturers. Additionally, LuitBiz DMS & QMS are integrated in the backend and data can be exchanged seamlessly between the two systems. This ensures easy and quick deployment with customized features so that our customers do not have to change the way they manage their quslity process - we change the software for you!
Training and Audits: Automobile companies invest in employee training and regular internal/external audits to ensure adherence to ISO 9001 and IATF 16949 requirements
Complexity and Excessive Training Requirements: Most DMS and QMS software are difficult to use or require significant training, especially for smaller teams. This involves spending a lot of time and money in training teams and due to the complexity of the software user adaptation is extremely low.
No Training Requirements: LuitBiz DMS and QMS are extremely easy to use and hence the training curve is extremely low. For learning to use LuitBiz DMS it hardly takes 30 minutes and for LuitBiz QMS, the training time is 90 minutes. This saves a lot of time and money for automobile companies. Additionally, since LuitBiz is so easy to use, user adaptation is extremely high and the company can realise its ROI in less than a month.
Implementation & Operational Costs: Automobile companies spend a lot of money in manually managing their documents. This includes storage and manual retrieval costs. In case off-the-shelf DMS and QMS software is used by a company, there is a huge cost for implementation and integration.
High Costs: Manual document management involves huge storage and retrieval costs and is highly time-consuming. Additionally, most of the off-the-shelf DMS and QMS software also require huge investments for implementation and integration.
Affordable Costs & Fast Implementation: LuitBiz DMS & QMS is deployed over our secure cloud servers and is extremely budget-friendly. Since both DMS & QMS modules are already integrated, there is no integration cost involved. The customization costs (one-time) are very reasonable that makes LuitBiz a very pocket-friendly solution for ensuring IATF 16949 compliance.