GKN Sinter Metals at Lichfield (West Midlands) received TS16949:2002 certification from BSI in December 2005.
As Jim Best, QM at GKN Sinter Metals, states: ” A significant contribution to our success was made by the resources I was able to access associated with the EuroMotor and AutoTrain activities”.
On a letter thanking Dr. Cedric Ashley, AutoTrain Project Director, Mr. Best recalls the time when he attended a EuroMotor seminar and later participated on a TS16949 workshop where he delivered a short presentation on the topic of the tools and techniques required by the specification (PPAP, FMEA and other methods).
He points out that “It helped me understand the process approach and especially how to represent it graphically in the form of a turtle diagram.” As a result, he “reviewed and modified all our key internal processes, documenting them with simple turtle diagrams”.
Mr. Best also explains in the letter that “this approach was readily supported by local management as they could more easily visualize and comprehend the need for effectiveness measures by looking at an input-output diagram than by close typed pages of procedure”. In any case GKN needed to provide evidence of sub-supplier development towards TS16949. According to Mr. Best “we achieved this by holding open days, where the supply base was given a review of the standard and our expectations along with links to the AutoTrain website”.