Tecman achieve prestigious IATF certification
16949:2016 accreditation is a major milestone for the business
Tecman has achieved IATF 16949:2016 accreditation this week, which verifies our consistent compliance with the most rigorous automotive industry standards. This means our facility in Leamington Spa, UK has both ISO 9001 and IATF 16949:2016 certification. This is a major milestone for the business and a direct result of the work the whole team have done over the last year following additional investment as part of our growth plan.
Kevin Porter (left), Managing Director, and Tom Deards (right), QHSE Manager, receive the IATF 16949:2016 certificate.
Why IATF 16949:2016 matters for Automotive Suppliers
The IATF certification was created in 1999 by several of the world’s largest OEMs and is a quality management standard unique to automotive manufacturers. It recognises best practice and signifies a company’s commitment to quality, continuous improvement and compliance with industry specific requirements. It means customers can be confident that our longstanding commitment to continuous improvement and high standards has been formally and independently verified.
Assessing the Whole Business with a Rigorous two-stage on-site audit
The process is rigorous and involves a two-stage on-site audit in which the whole business is assessed – this differs from traditional quality management systems, which focus on individual processes. It demonstrates compliance with the most stringent risk mitigation and quality assurance standards set by the industry.
There are over 2500 component manufacturers servicing the automotive sector in the UK1 but fewer than 500 have IATF certification. This accolade verifies our capabilities and follows significant recent investments in our people, processes, and facilities, putting Tecman on a path to becoming a tier one supplier.
Tecman Processes meet Globally recognised standards
We are best known as a solution driven partner focused on tackling persistent industry challenges. Our innovative approach to engineering challenges and a design-for-manufacture methodology has enabled us to build a reputation that sees many of our products used in leading automotive brands. We look forward to leveraging this prestigious accolade to support our growing customer base.
As many customers will have seen, we unveiled an industry leading process that enables the high-volume continuous manufacture of ATP Pads at Battery Cells and Systems Expo in June. We have seen significant interest from customers in this ground-breaking cell spacer technology, which can enhance cell life, optimise performance, and increase the thermal propagation delay to over 20 minutes. The IATF accreditation demonstrates that this patented process meets globally recognised standards.
What does this mean for new and existing customers?
Our customer partners can now be assured that our process efficiency, risk management, product quality control, supplier management and continuous improvement processes have been assessed and verified.
We seek to surpass expectations for our customers, which means setting and achieving high standards for ourselves. Achieving this accreditation has involved a complex, rigorous assessment process, requiring changes throughout the business. It is testament to the professionalism and excellence of the whole team at Tecman that we have achieved IATF 16949:2016 accreditation.
Beyond accreditation: delivering world class service levels
Our customer partners have already experienced tangible benefits from the implementation of our new business management system. We remain dedicated to collaborating closely with our customers, incorporating their insights into our continuous improvement program. Our goal is to achieve world-class levels of service across the entire business.
This accreditation provides assurance that we have the right infrastructure and capabilities as a full service, end-to-end manufacturing partner, to overcome persistent industry challenges that help advance automotive engineering.
To discuss how Tecman can support your project, please get in touch with our technical sales team.