It takes the cooperation of all personnel involved in the process, not just the top management, to implement a Quality Management System (QMS) based on IATF 16949. Any company with a quality management system (QMS) that has earned IATF 16949 certification should be aware of how crucial it is to assign personnel roles and duties to accomplish the system's intended results. This is one of the crucial components that will greatly influence the success or failure of your QMS and the amount of additional work necessary to address any subsequent non-conformities.
The effectiveness of the system, like with any standard management system, mainly depends on the top management's involvement. Although the majority of the general guidelines for senior management to demonstrate their leadership are taken from ISO 9001:2015, there are additional requirements that are specific to IATF 16949:
- The top management must accept primary responsibility for the QMS's effectiveness and recognize that their actions will determine whether it is successful or fails.
- It is impossible to define the IATF 16949 policy and objectives without the support of senior management since both the policy and the objectives must be in line with the situation and organizational strategy.
- It is also the top management's job to ensure that the QMS is connected with the organization's business processes.
- Since the QMS cannot function without the proper resources, providing resources for its functioning falls under the responsibility of senior management as well.
- promoting the use of the process approach and risk-based thinking, as well as emphasizing the value of the QMS's efficacy and adherence to the standards.
- involving, managing, and assisting staff to contribute to the efficiency of the QMS, as well as assisting other management positions to exercise leadership in their respective domains of responsibility.
- defining the corporate responsibility policy, which must contain an ethics escalation policy, an anti-bribery policy, and a code of conduct for personnel.
- Choosing the people who will be in charge of overseeing the processes and their associated results.
- Performing management reviews to evaluate the state and performance of the QMS and identify essential improvement measures
Along with the functions and responsibilities that the top management must assume under the QMS, clause 5.3 outlines additional roles and responsibilities that the top management must delegate to the mid-management and other team members within the company:
- QMS compliance with the standard's requirements
- Process Efficiency
- Document the QMS performance
- Preserving the QMS's integrity when the system is being maintained and changed
- Meeting the demands of the client
- Stopping the production and shipment in situations of nonconformity
- Accountability for corrective actions
- Conformity to product necessities
- Transfer roles and responsibilities makes the QMS effective
Both the planning and choices that go into the process and the actual authenticating of duties inside the IATF 16949 documents are crucial. Despite the lack of a particular reference to "documented information" in terms of roles and duties, the standard states that the organization should keep records of information "determined as being necessary for QMS effectiveness." Duties and responsibilities must be carefully evaluated before being allocated to a worker in order to make sure they are well-defined, measurable, have clearly defined time frames for the activities, and are compatible with the worker's talents.
It is possible to establish precise assessment and action stages when roles and duties are so clearly stated. The organization may then easily determine how much progress has been made while keeping clarity over who is responsible for delivering activities crucial to the QMS. The task of guaranteeing continuous improvement for your QMS will become much more feasible if your roles and duties are clearly assigned, defined, and documented.
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