IATF Audit Checklist For Maintenance

The IATF Audit Checklist for Maintenance provides a tool to assist with maintaining compliance with IATF standards. It contains steps necessary for implementing and auditing your Quality Management System as well as areas of possible improvement.

IATF standards mandate accountability and evidence of competency from management and employees alike. Regular audits should be performed, with appropriate action being taken if nonconformances occur.

1. Schedule the Audit
An internal audit is an integral component of maintaining IATF 16949 registration for any company. A properly planned, conducted and reported audit can help companies improve their processes and practices while helping maintain registration status.

Once an audit is complete, companies should make sure that corrective actions have been implemented and keep records of audits and activities to submit to their certification body for review.

To prepare for an audit, companies should start by reviewing documentation and creating a checklist with all requirements that must be fulfilled for certification. Note that this list may change during an audit as more is learned about requirements; prior to starting work on their audit schedule should include information regarding areas being audited, requirements included within that audit and timeline for completion of auditing activities.

2. Conduct the Audit
After the audit planning stage is completed, it’s time to conduct the actual audit. This requires reviewing documents, observing processes, interviewing employees and recording findings accordingly. When necessary, follow-up actions must also be taken against findings identified during this phase.

Goal of This step: to identify and address any areas where the Quality Management System doesn’t meet requirements, helping ensure your company delivers high-quality products and services to clients.

As part of an audit, it is vital to use a comprehensive checklist and take notes in detail during its execution. This will enable you to accurately assess the quality management system (QMS)’s effectiveness and determine any necessary improvements, while simultaneously creating an audit report used to demonstrate compliance with IATF and allow automotive manufacturers to continue providing you with goods or services, potentially leading to increased business opportunities.

3. Write the Report
Internal audit of quality management system processes at your company is one of the key steps towards IATF 16949 certification, as this ensures your performance against each requirement outlined by this standard and that non-compliant procedures are being addressed as soon as possible.

An IATF 16949 Audit Checklist can be an invaluable resource when conducting this process, helping to keep you on track and organized. Your checklist should cover both requirements from IATF 16949 standard as well as those specific to your own business processes and documentation. Start by reviewing any related policies, plans or other documents associated with the process being audited.

Once you have reviewed all documentation, use an IATF audit checklist to plan an audit. This includes identifying who to interview, what documents to review, and where you need to visit. Upon completion, write up a report detailing your findings as well as recommendations for improvement.

4. Follow Up
Once an audit has been conducted, it’s vital that findings are acted on promptly. This may involve assigning personnel for root cause analysis and corrective/preventive action planning as well as monitoring implementation of these actions and measuring results.

An effective way of tracking findings is through quality management software solutions like DATAMYTE that allow users to efficiently create internal audit checklists.

As part of your IATF audit preparations, start by reviewing the standard’s “shalls” related to maintenance and verifying that there is sufficient evidence supporting their requirements. Next, address any nonconformities (clauses 10.2.1, 10.2.3, 8.3.5.2, and 8.5.1.1). Addressing these issues will ensure your facility is on track toward certification – once these issues have been dealt with you can move onto other steps of the checklist for your audit.