Posted November 29, 2016
Why Choosing Suppliers with a Superior Quality Management System Matters
Unless you are the lead dog, the view never changes!
Not only true in the world of dog sled racing, but in most business applications today, if you are not leading the pack, you may be looking up someone’s back side. When it comes to Quality Management Systems (QMS), Insight Fuel continues to be one of the lead dogs in the CNG fuel system industry.
A few years ago, we made the decision to embrace the automotive industry requirements of TS-16949 (Click here to read more about TS16949). If you are not familiar with this technical standard, it is all the requirements of ISO-9001, with additional requirements specific to the automotive industry. While others in the industry were pursuing ISO-9001, we went a step beyond and became certified to TS-16949.
Now, we are taking the lead again. In 2015, there was a new version of ISO-9001 released and in 2016, TS-16949 became IATF 16949. As InsightFuel, we will be in the first wave of companies to be certified to these two new standards.
At this point you may ask “how does this benefit me?” Well here are a few ways:
• With approximately 153,000 NG vehicles on the road in the US today, our industry is relatively new. As the industry grows and more and more NG vehicles hit the road the influence of OEMs, and the oversight by agencies such as NHTSA will be greater and the now mostly voluntarily adhered-to standards from groups such as CSA will become more mandatory. So, using suppliers that have fully developed and certified quality systems, specifically designed for the automotive industry, will be even more important.
• Industry standards such as CSA NGV 4.2-2014 Hoses for natural gas dispensing systems, CSA NGV 3.1-2014 Fuel system components for compressed natural gas powered vehicles and, CSA NGV 6.1-2016 Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) fuel storage and delivery systems for road vehicles all specifically call out for Quality Management Systems.
• A company making the investment in time and money to become certified is demonstrating a commitment to the CNG transportation industry and will likely be in it for the long haul.
• IATF 16949 is extremely customer focused. All things in the standard point to meeting or exceeding customer requirements.
• Although IATF 16949 is a Quality Management System, the commitment of the organization extends well beyond the quality department up to the highest levels of management. This ensures that any issues that you have with InsightFuel as a supplier will receive the attention of top management.
• There are almost 500 more “shalls” in IATF 16949 than there are in ISO 9001. There are almost 400 additional “shalls” in IATF 16949 when compared to TS 16949. The vast majority of these additional requirements are intended to protect the customer.
Note: A “shall” is a mandatory requirement as opposed to a “may” or “should”
• IATF 16949 requirements include not only product quality conformance, but capacity planning, contingency plans, packaging and logistics, product and process design, sub-supplier development and management, continuous improvement and more. Calling it a Quality Management System is really selling it short, it is actually a Business management system.
Using an ISO 9001 or IATF 16949 supplier will provide compliance to most other applicable Quality Management Systems. At InsightFuel we will continue to stay a step or two ahead of the pack because we like the view from the front. Come to us for what we know, not just what we sell. InsightFuel a refreshingly new idea for clean fuel transportation.
To learn more about InsightFuel, including our QMS implementation plan,
