IATF auditor ’s hints – before they will audit you!

The automotive industry is very demanding. It is necessary to ensure “high” quality of products with on time delivery, focusing on continuous improvement and minimizing errors and losses throughout the entire supply chain. Thanks to such approach it is possible to ensure high competitiveness. Therefore, to be able to meet the requirements, automotive manufacturers require their suppliers to meet the requirements of the IATF 16949 standard. IATF auditor confirms it.

Due to the many mandatory requirements to be implemented, an IATF audit is not easy. It can also be an incredibly stressful event for an organization. Therefore, I invited IATF auditor from different certification bodies and from different countries for an interview.

IATF Auditor Guidance

The purpose of this interview is to obtain guidance from the auditor’s point of view to help you certify your organization. This will be done by answering the following questions:

1. How should organizations prepare for an external audit?

2. Which IATF standard clause is the most difficult to meet from the point of view of the experience of each of the asked auditors and why? What would the auditor advise organizations on this most difficult point?

3. How to work with discrepancies? Where to put the main emphasis? How to cooperate with the CARA system?

4. Is remote auditing easier? How to prepare for remote audits?

5. What will or should be the future direction of the development of the IATF standard?

Meet my guests

I invite you to get to know my guests before going into their answers. Each of them is a unique expert with extensive professional and auditing experience in the automotive industry.

The order in which they are presented is completely random.

IATF Auditor – Pedro Oliveira da Silva

• Pedro comes from Portugal.
• Specialist with over 25 years’ experience in the automotive industry, ten of those in OEM’s and Tier n suppliers, and over 15 years as trainer, consultant and auditor.
• IATF 3rd party auditor since 2008, having worked with CBs such as TÜV Rheinland, DQS, TÜV SÜD and URS, with audits performed over Europe, North America and South Africa.
• He is familiar with Automotive QMS standards since 1998, so he has witnessed the transition from QS9000 to the first ISO/TS16949 edition and then for the process approach ISO/TS 16949 and now the IATF 16949.
• Pedro has also witnessed the evolution of the automotive QMS in several companies from the old clause-oriented document-based systems to true process-oriented systems.
• LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paosilva/

IATF-Auditor – Andras Viktor Szabo

• Victor comes from Hungary.
• He studied mechanical engineering and quality assurance at the Technical College of Budapest.
• He worked at Dräxlmaier as quality engineer. He went through all stages in quality assurance finally as the quality manager who was responsible for the coordination of quality assurance and quality management activities at the Hungarian plant and for almost two years for quality planning activities in project Maybach in Vilsbiburg, Germany.
• In 2003 Victor established training and consultancy company. In 2011 his company became the official licensee of VDA QMC in Hungary then in 2017 in five other countries Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and in Macedonia.
• Between 2004 and 2018 I delivered more than 1 500 ISO/TS and IATF 16949 audit days throughout Europe for different certification bodies. He worked for BSI, NSF, DNV-GL, TÜV Süd and BVQI as well. He was also involved in the internal witness audit program at BSI as an auditor.
• Most recently Victor joined SMMT the British oversight office of IATF as external resource witness auditor.
• LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrasviktorszabo/

IATF Auditor – Kees deWit

• Kees comes from USA and lives in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
• He is is currently working for BSI in USA.
• His background includes quality and production management positions in automotive supply chain.
• Kees was working as Quality Manager and Quality Engineering Manager in such companies as SKF, Siemens, Autoliv, Sidler LaOtto Manufacturing, Nishikawa Standard Company, Guardian Automotivv… which gives him more than 40 years of industry experience.
• He specializes in such processes as: rubber extrusion, glas fabrication, wire harness production, injection molding and few others…
• LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/keesdewit/

IATF Auditor – György Kőrösi

• György comes from Hungary.
• Specialist with over 25 years’ experience in working with quality.
• He has done approximately one thousand audit days in IATF 16949 in 14 countries,
• He works with such certification bodies like: Vincotte (already the automotive accredittation withdrawn), NQA, URS, TÜV SÜD.
• Main sectors György is auditing: metal, electronics, plastic, glass.
• LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gyorgykorosi/

IATF Auditor – Dr Amir Hossein Doctoran

• Amir is Iranian.
• He works in the automotive industry for 27 years (since 1995).
• Until 2003, he worked as a laboratory supervisor, production manager, quality control manager and engineering manager.
• Since 2003, Amir has three parallel activities:

1. QS9000, ISO/TS16949 quality management system consultant in the automotive industry,
2. quality engineering lecturer,
3. cooperation with RW TUV (TUV NORD) as a quality systems auditor.

• He officially joined the IATF auditors in 2011 and joined the DQS group in 2013, and he is currently doing audits for this company, although he spends most of my time on technology transfer projects in the automotive industry.
• Also, in the period from 2011 to 2015, he had a few collaborations with ICIM and KIWA-CERMET as an IATF auditor.
• LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-amir-hossein-doctoran-68557340/

Also watch the invitation to video interviews with my guests, which will be published on the QualityWise YouTube channel:

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If I can help you with quality management issues, just contact me. You may also join me in my private group on Facebook: ISO 9001 & IATF 16949 QualityWise Group.

Thank you for your presence.

Agata Lewkowska Ph.D.

For people who want to know more:

IATF 16949: 2016 Requirements for quality management systems in serial production and the production of spare parts in the automotive industry, 1st edition, 2016

Rules for Achieving IATF Recognition, 5th Edition, November 1, 2016

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