International Standards

There's a chill wind blowing in from Lake Michigan for those auto industry suppliers who have ignored the General Motors/Chrysler mandate to earn a QS-9000 certificate.

If the 700 members of the Michigan Tooling Association are any indication, that's the bulk of the auto industry's 20,000 or so supply base. At last count, only 20 MTA members were actively involved in QS-9000 registration efforts.

Those numbers may be shifting soon -- and drastically -- as current suppliers are realizing they have just over a year to meet the GM/Chrysler Dec. 31, 1997, deadline for QS-9000 certification. Ford Motor Co. suppliers were supposed to be QS-9000 compliant as of last June but are not required to earn QS-9000 certificates.

It's not entirely surprising that auto industry suppliers would put off pursuing QS-9000, the Big Three's first-ever quality program that couples ISO 9000 with an amalgam of industry-specific guidelines drawn from Big Three quality programs: GM's North American Operations Targets for Excellence, Ford's Q-101 Quality System Standard, Chrysler's Supplier Quality Assurance Manual and GM Europe's General Quality Standard for Purchased Materials.

After all, auto suppliers have faced numerous Big Three quality efforts in the past. Some had pursued them, others had not and were still working with the Big Three. But by summer, the word was out among suppliers that GM and Chrysler were serious about their QS-9000 mandate.

Rich Steinhelper, MTA executive director, says his members are moving out of the "ostrich" phase on QS-9000. They are making serious inquiries about how to actually meet requirements for the Big Three's first-ever quality program. GM brass and members of the Automotive Industry Action Group are experiencing similar movement on the part of the auto supply base. What worries them is what appears to be rampant confusion about QS-9000 and still a good deal of balking at implementing the program.

To understand QS-9000, it's crucial to understand ISO 9000. Very simply, ISO 9000 involves a total quality management sort of approach to organizing a company for the purpose of marshaling employee support to create an internal auditing system. That internal auditing system is based on documentation of work procedures so that a company can assess exactly what it is doing.

For QS-9000, you take this ISO 9000 approach and add a great number of steps that are specific to producing high-quality automobiles. Big Three officials say any company that has already worked through one of their previous quality programs should find QS-9000 a "piece of cake."

Starting from scratch -- and there will be suppliers in this position -- is another story. The first step is establishing a companywide quality system based on ISO 9000, according to QS-9000 experts.

The most efficient, cost-effective approach to QS-9000 can be divided into three main categories:

In-house preparation, which includes learning about QS-9000 requirements and setting up an employee/management system for carrying out the work of documenting procedures and creating a QS-9000 quality manual.

Getting the system up and running, taking care to address the very detailed approach to quality that QS-9000 demands.

The final auditing process.

It's important to understand that although QS-9000 is a common quality program, it is not entirely harmonized. Each company has retained some individual requirements. Moreover, despite the mandates, the program is in a quasi-pilot phase. Those pursuing QS-9000 should take care to learn the exceptions.

Those who have not implemented one of the Big Three quality programs should take special care to learn as much as possible about those requirements. AIAG, located in Southfield, Michigan, has resource materials on the following topics that may provide problems:

Statistical process control

Process capability studies

Customer approval of new parts

Gage variation studies

Failure mode and effects analysis

Production part approval

Remember that QS-9000 is designed to be product-specific, while ISO 9000 is nonprescriptive. The aim is to reduce failure rates in automobiles to keep reliability high and repairs low. And that means that QS-9000 entails a whole list of skills that ISO 9000 doesn't address at all. There are whole qualifications on geometric tolerances, design of experiments and calibration, for example, that are very much auto-specific.

QS-9000 also places a large emphasis on advanced quality planning so that from the start, suppliers weave customer needs into their production process. Here are some tips for accomplishing advanced quality planning:

Set up a cross-functional, multidisciplinary team.

Do market research.

Establish benchmarking data.

Seek customer input.

Identify design goals.

Identify key characteristics that need to be controlled in the product.

Conduct feasibility reviews to make sure the product is built as designed and can hold tolerances.

And then there's the QS-9000 requirement to set up control plans, which are related to product design. Control plans address things like the thickness of walls, graphic art design and other elements crucial to making an automobile.

Sound confusing? Feel a little queasy reading about this? Then you're probably not a Big Three supplier. QS-9000 is hardly easy, but it really should be familiar turf for those who work closely with the Big Three.

What really matters to those who designed QS-9000 is that their suppliers dig in and give it a try. They need to work through the process and make the management changes that QS-9000 -- as well as ISO 9000 -- require to get the job done. What the Big Three really hope to see are better-running companies that can respond more effectively to their needs. Remember, in this case, the Big Three are the customers.

As for those suppliers that don't go the route, car company execs are quite clear that they can work for someone else.

About the author . . .

Amy Zuckerman is author of ISO 9000 Made Easy: A Cost-Saving Guide to Documentation and Registration (AMACOM Books). She operates an international market research company based in Amherst, Massachusetts.