By Paul Scicchitano

The automotive industry has taken the wraps off a new edition of the ISO/TS 16949 quality requirement that promises only minor changes for some 38,000 certified supplier organizations around the world.

“The revised ISO/TS 16949:2009 standard does not introduce any new or changed requirements from ISO/TS 16949:2002,” according to a statement issued by the Automotive Industry Action Group (AIAG). “The revision is based on the updates made to the ISO 9001:2008 standard. Minor changes were made to ISO 9001 to provide clarification, greater consistency, resolution of perceived ambiguities, and improved compatibility with ISO 14001, which relates to environmental management systems.”

The automotive document is published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), which recently released the fourth edition of ISO 9001. TS 16949 incorporates all of the generic quality requirements along with industry specific ones.