Very few people speak passionately about standards, but after a lifetime in the automotive industry, Michael F. Brennan is one. He has seen for himself the benefits reaped by setting a high standard and sticking to it, “I believe the goal of common, standard systems is worth the price of the journey.”
Managing Director for the International Automotive Oversight Bureau (IAOB), Michael F. Brennan, is one of the caretakers of the industry’s own standard designed to improve quality management. Called ISO/TS (Technical Specification) 16949, it was launched in 2000. It’s the first international quality management system standard for the entire automotive industry.
“The standard is based on the generic ISO 9001 standard, but has additional content targeted to increase the impact on the automotive industry. Quantifiable data confirms that the standard is improving quality, but we don’t claim to have found the secret to success just yet,” says Brennan.
Higher demands for re-qualification
The ISO/TS standard, which replaced several national standards, is owned by the International Automotive Task Force (IATF). Five oversight bureaus, of which the IAOB represents North-America, have been created to function as accreditation bodies on its behalf. Together, they approve the certification bodies that may provide certification to customers.
“We now have 54 approved certification bodies around the world, of which 24 are my responsibility as manager for the IAOB,” says Brennan.
In order to improve the implementation and quality of the standard, the five oversight offices have raised the bar for the certification auditors.
“Every third year the IATF requires that all certification body auditors go through a re-qualification process. Recently we enhanced the quality of the training and the demands significantly in order to improve quality and consistency among the auditors,” says Brennan.
This may lower the numbers of those who pass, but Brennan emphasises that raising the quality is the goal. "We now have 2,300 auditors for our ISO/TS certification scheme, while we believe that 1,500 would suffice at the anticipated volume of certificates. However, at the same time we have nowhere near enough local language auditors in countries such as China, India and Korea.”
China… again.
The automotive industry is competitive, and recent years have seen a consolidation among automakers as well as suppliers. The hunt for lower costs continues, and with financial problems in the US a move to the east is on.
“Automakers are moving as quickly as possible to countries with lower labour costs. China in particular is a behemoth. To have a local presence, we opened up an office in Beijing two months ago,” says Brennan, who has seen such shifts in the auto-industry before, mentioning Mexico. “Now that China has lower costs than Mexico, the industry is moving east instead of south.”
Growing interest in Asia. In the US, the big three auto makers GM, Ford, and DaimlerChrysler all require their first tier suppliers to be certified to the standard. Some of these first tier suppliers require this also from their suppliers. Large Asian auto manufacturers have yet to use the standard, but there are developments.
“Some of the Asian automakers are showing an interest. This seems to indicate that we are going in the right direction,” says Brennan.
While there can be difficulties with quality in lower cost countries, the results so far are positive.
“GM’s Chinese first-tier supplier is on par or better than its European counterparts. I’ve also experienced that other
first-tier suppliers deliver good quality,
but if we look to the second, third or fourth tiers we know there are still
challenges to be faced,” says Brennan.
Consistency and quality. Consistency and high quality remain primary drivers in an industry looking to cut costs. The standard and the consistency it provides is an answer, believes Brennan.
“I’m confident that the standard and common systems benefit the industry and the end product. It’s still early days, and we will always look for ways to improve the way we implement the scheme of certification,” he says. He speaks with admiration about the Toyota model: “They follow the process almost religiously, and they only change it if somebody shows them something better, and then all of Toyota goes the same way. It's truly phenomenal, and it’s something you just don’t see in western automakers. That is my little contribution to the auto industry; I’m passionate about the value of common standardised systems.”
Photo: Allan Davey/Masterfile