Implementation of ISO TS 16949 towards business excellence – results from a case study

The growth of ISO 9001 certifications all over the world confirms the enterprises' interest in international standardisation. The standards have impacted different industrial systems such as the automotive. Assemblers have developed specific documents usually based on ISO 9001 so that their suppliers have been faced with multiple, mandated requirements for quality certification. In this context, technical specification ISO TS 16949 was developed with the objective of standardising the quality system procedures, responsibilities and processes at the international level. This paper aims at investigating the results of TS 16949 implementation and the strategy used by an autoparts company to obtain its certification. A case-based research was adopted as the research methodological approach by gathering data from interviews, work environment observation, and document analysis. The results obtained from the study revealed that during the preparation for certification, the company's organising framework helped obtain ISO TS 16949 certification, because its adopted strategy was able to identify all the necessary work, allocate resources to conduct the work, and to plan the auditing in order to achieve implementation goals.