Many suppliers (OEMs) were asked by the car manufacturers to build and certify their quality management system according to the rules and regulations of their own country organizations, such as: VDA (Germany), AIAG (North America), AVSQ (Italy), FIEV (France), SMMT (UK).
 
But due to this regulation a supplier needed to provide two different certificates for Daimler and Chrysler (VDA 6.1 for Germany and QS 9000 America), even though the supplier delivered only to a single company. These complexities accelerated the need for harmonization. ISO/TS 16949 came into being.

 
ISO/TS 16949 is an ISO technical specification aimed at the development of a quality management system that provides for continual improvement, emphasizing defect prevention and the reduction of variation and waste in the automotive industry supply chain. It is based on the ISO 9001 standard and the first edition was published in June 1999 as ISO/TS 16949:1999.
 
It was prepared by the International Automotive Task Force (IATF) and the "Technical Committee" of ISO. It harmonizes the country-specific regulations of quality Management systems.
 
About 30 percent of the more than 100 existing automobile manufacturers affiliate the requirements of the norm but especially the large Asian manufacturers have differentiated, own requirements for the quality management systems of their corporate group and their suppliers.

 
ISO/TS 16949 applies to the design/development, production and, when relevant, installation and servicing of automotive-related products.
 
The requirements are intended to be applied throughout the supply chain. As an automotive resistor supplier, Microhm Electronics always foucuses on these advanced requirements and trys to achieve them. For the first time vehicle assembly plants will be encouraged to seek ISO/TS 16949 certification.