Audits for Remote Locations within IATF 16949 certificate:

  • Remote supporting functions, such as design, sales, purchasing, and warehouse, shall be included within IATF 16949 certification scope.
  • The remote locations (RLs) shall be audited by one of its supported sites' CB.
  • The remote location report package include audit planaudit reportcorrective actions and verification actions to issued NCs, without overdue opening nonconformity.
  • The remote location audit report shall describe the relevant supported manufacturing sitessupporting functions, audited interfaces, and Customer Specific Requirements (CSRs).
  • The remote location report package to DQS HK shall be in English or Chinese.
  • The remote location audit reports shall be used by the site as an input for QMS planning and management reviews.
  • Due to confidential requirement, DQS HK may NOT have direct access in system to audit reports for a RL handled by another DQS office.

Audits for Further Locations in ISO 9001 Certificate:

  • When a further location (such as a RL in IATF 16949 certification) is included in an ISO 9001 certification, that location is one of the sites within a multi-site certification according to International Accreditation Forum (IAF) Mandatory Document MD-1.
    (To reduce the complexity of communication, we use the term of Remote Location somewhere in this document for ISO 9001 issues.)
  • The eligibility for a multi-site certification is defined in IAF MD-1, such as a single management system, central function, internal audit programme and centralized management review.
  • IAF MD-1 doesn’t provide a solution to allow the Certification Body (CB) for a site to directly adopt an ISO 9001 audit report by another CB for a further location.
  • For a site certified against ISO 9001 by DQS, if a further location is not audited by DQS, this location shall not be listed in the ISO 9001 certificate issued by DQS for the site.
  • If a certificate is found not aligned with it during audit planning or audit, communication between the CB and the client shall be made to correct it.
  • A possible approach is to include the site only for the ISO 9001 certificate.
     

Audit Timing for Remote Locations

  • A Remote Location may support more than one Manufacturing Site. During Initial Audit of a Manufacturing Site, its Remote Locations are audited no later than that Manufacturing Site.
  • A Remote Location in an existing certificate is then audited according to its established audit cycle.
     
  • For example:
    A Remote Location requires annual audits, the latest Recertification Audit was conducted in Nov 2020, and its annual audit in 2021 and 2022 shall be completed around September.
    The latest Recertification Audit for a Manufacturing Site was conducted in Feb 2021, and its annual audit in 2022 shall be completed around Feb.
    Before the audit to the Manufacturing Site in 2022, the audit report for Remote Location in the former year shall be provided.
     
  • In particular, IATF Rules require that the design function in a Remote Location shall be annually audited.
  • new Remote Location or a Remote Location with changes shall be audited no later than the associated Manufacturing Site, and the relevant interface will be reviewed during the audit to Manufacturing Site, before the certificate can be modified.
  • For a change to certificate with urgent need between two regular audits, a special audit can be arranged.

Audit days for Remote Locations

  • The rules for the required audit days to a remote location are different between IATF Rules for IATF 16949 and IAF Rules for ISO 9001.
  • IAF MD-1 requires separation of audit days calculation for every location, so the required number of audit days for ISO 9001 is most likely more that for IATF 16949 for a Remote Location.