IATF 16949:2016 Clause 8.1.1 Operational planning and control

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Product realization processes may include – customer related processes (sales and marketing); design and development; production; shipping; receiving; packaging; measurement and monitoring of product and processes, customer satisfaction feedback; etc., whether performed onsite or off-site.  Some of the support processes that apply to product realization processes include – document control; record control; human resources; infrastructure provision and maintenance; IT; purchasing and materials management; laboratory services; and control of monitoring and measuring devices, etc. You must show the sequence and interaction of these processes. The APQP is an excellent tool to accomplish this. Using the APQP methodology, your organization can identify the processes and controls needed to plan product realization from – identification and understanding of customer requirements; product design and development if applicable; manufacturing design and development; manufacturing and delivery. The focus of APQP is defect prevention and continual improvement, as well show how the processes link and interact with one another.The Quality Plan (Control Plan) is the output of the APQP process and is used to deploy product realization. The Control Plan must include product details and control characteristics; process sequence and process control parameters; specific resources needed to make, verify and deliver product; product and process monitoring and measurement controls; plans to control and correct any product or process nonconformities; reference to support processes; documents needed (such as work instructions or engineering specifications, etc.) and details of records to be kept. Required verification, validation, monitoring, inspection and test activities must apply to all processes identified for product realization and must be defined in your FMEA’s, Control Plan, work instructions, and other documents used for product realization.Where any of the product realization processes are done off-site (e.g. at head-office), your QMS must include the off-site processes within your QMS and ensure that such processes comply with IATF 16949 requirements. Evidence of the off-site facility’s compliance may include – a copy of their IATF 16949 certification; results of their internal audits to IATF 16949; auditing the outsourced facility; etc. The expectation is to flow down to the off-site facility, the relevant IATF16949 requirements that you would have to implement, had you carried out the process at your own facility.Performance indicators, (to measure the effectiveness of product realization in meeting requirements and achieving quality objectives,) will be specific to each realization process and focus on reducing variation and waste in realization processes and related use of resources. Objectives may be used to monitor and improve process – productivity; reduction of cycle time, errors, omissions and failures; etc. You must also consider indicators to measure product performance such as – reduction in defect rates, PPM’s (defective parts per million), scrap rates, waste and rework; improvement in on time delivery; product returns from customer; etc

Clause 8.1.1 Operational planning and control

In addition to the requirement given in ISO 9001:2015 Clause 8.1 Operational planning and control, Clause 8.1.1 requires that when planning for product realization, the following topics shall be included (a) Customer product requirement and technical specifications, (b) Logistics requirements, (c) Manufacturing feasibility, (d) Project planning, (e) Acceptance criteria. The resources needed to achieve conformity to the product and service requirements must include required verification, validation, monitoring, measurement, inspection, and test activities specific to the product and the criteria for product acceptance.

Please click here for ISO 9001:2015 Clause 8.1 Operational planning and control

When planning for product realization in accordance with IATF 16949, it is important to include several key topics. These topics help ensure that the product is developed, manufactured, and delivered in line with customer expectations and industry standards. Here are the topics that should be included in the planning process:

  1. Customer Product Requirements and Technical Specifications
  2. Logistics Requirements
  3. Manufacturing Feasibility
  4. Project Planning
  5. Acceptance Criteria
  6. Define Product Requirements
  7. Establish Process Flow
  8. Determine Required Resources
  9. Risk Management
  10. Design and Development
  11. Supplier Management
  12. Control of Production Processes
  13. Measurement and Monitoring
  14. Documentation
  15. Training and Competence
  16. Continuous Improvement

By including these topics in the planning process for product realization, organizations can effectively manage customer requirements, logistics considerations, manufacturing feasibility, project timelines, and acceptance criteria. This comprehensive approach helps ensure the successful development, production, and delivery of high-quality products that meet customer expectations and comply with IATF 16949 standards.

1 Customer Product Requirements and Technical Specifications

Customer product requirements and technical specifications are a fundamental aspect of operational planning and control in IATF 16949. These requirements and specifications outline the specific features, characteristics, and performance criteria that customers expect from the products they receive. Here’s how they are addressed:

  1. Understanding Customer Requirements:
    • Organizations must thoroughly understand and analyze the product requirements communicated by their customers.
    • This includes specifications related to dimensions, materials, functionality, performance, reliability, safety, and any other specific features or criteria outlined by the customer.
  2. Documentation and Communication:
    • The customer requirements and technical specifications should be documented and communicated within the organization to ensure all relevant personnel have access to this critical information.
    • This documentation can include drawings, technical data, specifications, or any other format that effectively captures the customer’s expectations.
  3. Design and Development:
    • The customer requirements and technical specifications serve as the foundation for the design and development of the product.
    • Design teams use this information to create product designs that meet or exceed the specified requirements.
    • Throughout the design and development process, regular communication with customers may be necessary to clarify any ambiguities or address potential issues.
  4. Verification and Validation:
    • During the verification and validation processes, organizations ensure that the designed product conforms to the customer requirements and technical specifications.
    • Verification involves checking that the design meets the specified criteria through activities such as design reviews, simulations, and prototyping.
    • Validation involves testing the actual product against the customer requirements to ensure it performs as intended and meets the desired specifications.
  5. Process Control:
    • The customer requirements and technical specifications guide process control activities to ensure that the manufacturing and production processes consistently produce products that meet the defined standards.
    • Process control measures may include inspection, testing, and monitoring procedures to verify that the product characteristics align with the customer’s expectations.
  6. Continuous Improvement:
    • Feedback from customers on product performance and their satisfaction can provide valuable insights for continuous improvement.
    • Organizations should actively seek and consider customer feedback to identify areas for enhancement and make necessary adjustments to meet or exceed customer expectations.

By focusing on customer product requirements and technical specifications throughout operational planning and control, organizations can align their processes, resources, and activities to deliver products that meet or exceed customer expectations while complying with IATF 16949 standards.

2. Logistics Requirements

Logistics requirements are an essential consideration in operational planning and control in IATF 16949. These requirements pertain to the efficient management of the physical flow of goods, materials, and information throughout the supply chain. Here’s how logistics requirements are addressed:

  1. Understanding Customer Logistics Requirements:
    • Organizations must have a clear understanding of the specific logistics requirements communicated by their customers.
    • This includes aspects such as packaging, labeling, shipping, transportation modes, delivery schedules, and any other specific instructions related to the movement and handling of products.
  2. Incorporating Logistics Considerations in Planning:
    • Logistics requirements should be integrated into the overall operational planning process.
    • This involves considering logistics factors when developing production schedules, inventory management strategies, and resource allocation plans.
    • The aim is to align production and delivery timelines with customer expectations while optimizing the use of resources.
  3. Packaging and Labeling:
    • Organizations need to ensure that products are packaged and labeled in compliance with customer-specific requirements.
    • Packaging materials, methods, and labeling information should be designed to protect the product, facilitate efficient handling and storage, and provide clear identification as per customer specifications.
  4. Shipping and Transportation:
    • Logistics requirements include selecting appropriate shipping methods and transportation modes that meet the customer’s expectations.
    • Organizations need to consider factors such as delivery timelines, cost-efficiency, geographical reach, and any special handling or transportation considerations specified by the customer.
  5. Supply Chain Collaboration:
    • Collaboration with logistics service providers, suppliers, and other partners within the supply chain is crucial.
    • Establishing clear communication channels and agreements with these stakeholders ensures effective coordination of logistics activities.
    • This collaboration helps organizations meet customer logistics requirements and optimize the overall logistics performance.
  6. Documentation and Compliance:
    • Organizations must maintain accurate documentation related to logistics activities, such as shipping documents, delivery receipts, customs documentation, and any other relevant records.
    • Compliance with legal and regulatory requirements related to logistics, such as customs regulations or transportation regulations, should also be ensured.
  7. Continuous Improvement:
    • Organizations should continuously evaluate and improve their logistics processes to enhance efficiency, reduce costs, and meet evolving customer logistics requirements.
    • Regular review and analysis of logistics performance metrics can identify areas for optimization and drive continuous improvement initiatives.

By effectively addressing logistics requirements in operational planning and control, organizations can ensure that products are delivered to customers in a timely manner, with appropriate packaging, labeling, and adherence to logistics instructions. This focus on logistics helps meet customer expectations and enhance customer satisfaction while aligning with IATF 16949 standards.

3.Manufacturing Feasibility

Assessing manufacturing feasibility is a critical aspect of operational planning and control in IATF 16949. It involves evaluating the organization’s ability to effectively produce the desired product within specified requirements. Here’s how manufacturing feasibility is addressed:

  1. Evaluation of Technical Requirements:
    • Review the technical specifications, drawings, and product requirements provided by the customer.
    • Assess whether the organization has the necessary capabilities and resources to meet the technical requirements and produce the product.
  2. Capacity Analysis:
    • Evaluate the organization’s production capacity and determine if it aligns with the anticipated demand for the product.
    • Consider factors such as available equipment, labor resources, space, and any constraints that may impact the manufacturing process.
  3. Process Evaluation:
    • Analyze the manufacturing process steps required to produce the product.
    • Assess the organization’s current processes and determine if they are capable of meeting the specified requirements.
    • Identify any potential bottlenecks, areas of inefficiency, or areas requiring improvement.
  4. Resource Assessment:
    • Evaluate the availability and suitability of resources needed for manufacturing, such as machinery, tooling, raw materials, and skilled labor.
    • Ensure that the organization has the necessary resources to execute the manufacturing process effectively.
  5. Risk Identification and Mitigation:
    • Identify potential risks and challenges that could impact manufacturing feasibility, such as technical constraints, supply chain disruptions, or resource limitations.
    • Develop contingency plans and mitigation strategies to address identified risks and minimize their impact on manufacturing.
  6. Collaboration and Supplier Management:
    • Engage with suppliers and external partners to assess their capabilities and determine their contribution to the manufacturing process.
    • Evaluate their ability to meet quality and delivery requirements to ensure a seamless supply chain.
  7. Continuous Improvement:
    • Continuously evaluate and improve manufacturing processes to enhance efficiency, reduce waste, and improve overall feasibility.
    • Emphasize the use of quality tools and methodologies, such as Lean manufacturing or Six Sigma, to drive process improvement initiatives.

By thoroughly evaluating manufacturing feasibility, organizations can ensure that they have the necessary resources, capabilities, and processes in place to meet customer requirements effectively. This assessment helps prevent potential manufacturing issues, improve process efficiency, and align manufacturing practices with IATF 16949 standards.

4. Acceptance Criteria

Addressing acceptance criteria is a crucial element of operational planning and control in IATF 16949. Acceptance criteria define the specific parameters, measurements, or characteristics that a product or service must meet to be considered acceptable to the customer. Here’s how acceptance criteria are addressed:

  1. Understanding Customer Acceptance Criteria:
    • Thoroughly review and understand the acceptance criteria provided by the customer.
    • This includes criteria related to product performance, quality standards, functional requirements, safety regulations, and any other specific expectations outlined by the customer.
  2. Incorporating Acceptance Criteria in Process Control:
    • Develop robust process controls and inspection methods to ensure that products or services consistently meet the acceptance criteria.
    • Define and implement inspection points, measurement techniques, and test procedures to verify adherence to the specified acceptance criteria.
  3. Verification and Validation:
    • Establish methods to verify and validate product conformity based on the acceptance criteria.
    • This may involve conducting inspections, tests, measurements, or other evaluation methods to ensure that the product meets the specified criteria.
  4. Record keeping and Documentation:
    • Maintain accurate records documenting the results of inspections, tests, and measurements related to acceptance criteria.
    • Properly document any deviations from the acceptance criteria and associated corrective actions taken to address nonconformities.
  5. Customer Feedback and Satisfaction:
    • Seek customer feedback on product performance and satisfaction to ensure that the acceptance criteria align with their expectations.
    • Monitor customer satisfaction metrics, such as customer complaints or feedback, to identify areas for improvement and to address any issues related to acceptance criteria.
  6. Continuous Improvement:
    • Continuously evaluate and improve processes, systems, and products to enhance their ability to meet or exceed acceptance criteria.
    • Utilize quality tools and methodologies, such as statistical process control (SPC) or design of experiments (DOE), to identify areas for improvement and optimize product performance.

By effectively addressing acceptance criteria in operational planning and control, organizations can ensure that their products or services consistently meet customer expectations and comply with the requirements of IATF 16949. This focus on acceptance criteria helps drive customer satisfaction, product quality, and overall process improvement.

5) Project Planning

Project planning is a crucial element of operational planning and control in IATF 16949. It involves the systematic and organized development of a project plan to guide the execution and completion of specific tasks or initiatives. Here’s how project planning is addressed: Project Objectives and Scope: Clearly define the objectives and scope of the project. Identify the specific deliverables, outcomes, or goals to be achieved.
Work Breakdown Structure (WBS): Develop a comprehensive WBS that breaks down the project into manageable tasks, activities, and sub-tasks. Define the relationships and dependencies between these elements to ensure smooth execution.
Resource Identification and Allocation: Identify the necessary resources (human, financial, material, equipment) required to execute the project. Allocate resources based on availability, expertise, and capacity to effectively complete project tasks.
Timeframe and Milestones: Determine the project timeline, including start and end dates, and key milestones or checkpoints. Create a project schedule that outlines the sequence of activities and their respective duration.
Risk Assessment and Mitigation: Identify potential risks and uncertainties that may impact project success. Assess the likelihood and impact of these risks and develop mitigation strategies to minimize their effects.
Stakeholder Management: Identify project stakeholders and their roles, responsibilities, and expectations. Establish communication channels and ensure effective engagement with stakeholders throughout the project.
Project Documentation: Document project plans, schedules, resources, and other relevant information. Ensure that project documentation is readily accessible to team members and stakeholders.
Monitoring and Control: Establish mechanisms for monitoring project progress, tracking task completion, and measuring performance against set objectives. Implement regular project status updates, progress reports, and performance reviews to ensure timely identification of issues and implementation of corrective actions.
Change Management: Anticipate and manage changes that may arise during project execution.
Develop a change management process to assess the impact of changes, evaluate feasibility, and implement adjustments as needed. Lessons Learned and Continuous Improvement: Capture and analyze lessons learned throughout the project to identify areas for improvement. Document best practices, success factors, and challenges encountered for future reference and knowledge sharing.
By effectively planning projects, organizations can enhance efficiency, minimize risks, and improve overall project outcomes. It helps ensure that projects are completed within the specified timeframe, budget, and quality parameters, while aligning with the requirements of IATF 16949.

Verification, validation, monitoring, measurement, inspection, and test activities

Required verification, validation, monitoring, measurement, inspection, and test activities specific to the product and the criteria for product acceptance may vary depending on the nature of the product and customer requirements. However, here are some general examples of activities that organizations typically undertake:

Verification Activities:

  1. Design Verification: Ensure that the product design meets the specified requirements and standards through activities such as design reviews, simulations, and prototyping.
  2. Process Verification: Verify that the manufacturing and production processes adhere to established procedures and specifications, ensuring consistency and compliance.
  3. Component Verification: Validate the conformance of individual components or parts to their respective specifications through inspections, measurements, or testing.

Validation Activities:

  1. Product Validation: Validate the product’s performance and functionality against customer requirements and specifications through testing and evaluation under real-life conditions.
  2. Process Validation: Validate the manufacturing process’s capability to consistently produce products that meet the defined requirements, typically through process capability studies, production trials, or performance tests.

Monitoring and Measurement Activities:

  1. In-Process Monitoring: Monitor critical process parameters, control points, and key performance indicators during production to ensure compliance with specifications and identify deviations.
  2. Product Measurement: Conduct measurements and inspections of the finished product to verify dimensional accuracy, physical attributes, or functional characteristics.
  3. Statistical Process Control (SPC): Implement SPC techniques to monitor and control process variability, ensuring stable and predictable manufacturing processes.

Inspection and Test Activities:

  1. Incoming Inspection: Inspect and test incoming raw materials, components, or parts to ensure they meet specified requirements before being used in production.
  2. Final Inspection: Conduct a comprehensive inspection and testing of the finished product to validate its conformity to customer requirements and acceptance criteria.
  3. Performance Testing: Perform specific performance tests or evaluations to verify that the product meets or exceeds defined performance criteria, such as load testing, endurance testing, or environmental testing.

Criteria for Product Acceptance:

  1. Acceptance Sampling: Define the statistical sampling plan and acceptance criteria for inspecting and accepting/rejecting product lots or batches.
  2. Acceptance Criteria Specification: Clearly establish the criteria or thresholds that determine whether a product or batch is considered acceptable or nonconforming.
  3. Customer-specific Requirements: Consider any additional acceptance criteria specified by the customer that are unique to their needs or industry standards.

These activities and acceptance criteria should be tailored to the specific product, industry requirements, customer expectations, and regulatory compliance. It is essential for organizations to identify, document, and execute the appropriate verification, validation, monitoring, measurement, inspection, and test activities to ensure that their products meet the defined acceptance criteria and conform to IATF 16949 standards.

Published by Pretesh Biswas

Pretesh Biswas has wealth of qualifications and experience in providing results-oriented solutions for your system development, training or auditing needs. He has helped dozens of organizations in implementing effective management systems to a number of standards. He provide a unique blend of specialized knowledge, experience, tools and interactive skills to help you develop systems that not only get certified, but also contribute to the bottom line. He has taught literally hundreds of students over the past 5 years. He has experience in training at hundreds of organizations in several industry sectors. His training is unique in that which can be customized as to your management system and activities and deliver them at your facility. This greatly accelerates the learning curve and application of the knowledge acquired. He is now ex-Certification body lead auditor now working as consultancy auditor. He has performed hundreds of audits in several industry sectors. As consultancy auditor, he not just report findings, but provide value-added service in recommending appropriate solutions. Experience Consultancy: He has helped over 100 clients in a wide variety of industries achieve ISO 9001,14001,27001,20000, OHSAS 18001 and TS 16949 certification. Industries include automotive, metal stamping and screw machine, fabrication, machining, assembly, Forging electrostatic and chrome plating, heat-treating, coatings, glass, plastic and rubber products, electrical and electronic equipment, assemblies & components, batteries, computer hardware and software, printing, placement and Security help, warehousing and distribution, repair facilities, consumer credit counseling agencies, banks, call centers, etc. Training: He has delivered public and on-site quality management training to over 1000 students. Courses include ISO/TS -RAB approved Lead Auditor, Internal Auditing, Implementation, Documentation, as well as customized ISO/TS courses, PPAP, FMEA, APQP and Control Plans. Auditing: He has conducted over 100 third party registration and surveillance audits and dozens of gap, internal and pre-assessment audits to ISO/QS/TS Standards, in the manufacturing and service sectors. Other services: He has provided business planning, restructuring, asset management, systems and process streamlining services to a variety of manufacturing and service clients such as printing, plastics, automotive, transportation and custom brokerage, warehousing and distribution, electrical and electronics, trading, equipment leasing, etc. Education & professional certification: Pretesh Biswas has held IRCA certified Lead Auditor for ISO 9001,14001 and 27001. He holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Mechanical Engineering and is a MBA in Systems and Marketing. Prior to becoming a business consultant 6 years ago, he has worked in several portfolios such as Marketing, operations, production, Quality and customer care. He is also certified in Six Sigma Black belt .

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