The “Risk Based Audit Days” project team was formed to investigate options for determining the length of an IATF 16949 audit. Currently, for ISO 9001 and IATF 16949 audits, the length of the audit (in days) is determined by the employee count at the site being audited. While that factor may have made sense 20 or 30 years ago when production lines and manufacturing plants were very labor intensive, in today’s factories with both advanced manufacturing and product technologies, remote support facilities, and complex global supply chains, employee headcount at the plant may not be the best indicator of QMS risk.
To that end, the project team has devised a “Risk Based Criteria” based on five “Risk Drivers” – including factors such as the scope and magnitude of New Product Development & Launch activities, whether or not the site has safety related components, the QMS Complexity of the site, the site’s QMS Maturity, and the Quality and Delivery Performance of the site to its customers.
The team is now piloting the Risk Based criteria and audit length adjustment methods during several hundred actual supplier site audits. Once validated, the new Risk Based methodology will be implemented in the IATF Rules.