Understanding The ISO/TS 16949:2002 Standard 

5.5.2 Management Representative  

Top management must: 

Appoint a member of management as the Management Representative (MR) 

Irrespective of other responsibilities, the MR shall have the responsibility and authority to: 

a)    ensure processes needed for the QMS are established, implemented, and maintained 

b)    report to top management on QMS performance and any need for improvement to it 

c)    ensure the promotion of awareness of customer requirements throughout the organization 

(Note: The MR’s responsibilities may include liaison with external parties on matters relating to the QMS) 

5.5.2.1 Customer Representative – top management shall designate personnel with responsibility & authority to ensure that customer quality requirements are addressed. This includes –  

Þ      special characteristics;  

Þ      setting quality objectives and related training;  

Þ      corrective and preventive action 

Þ       product design and development. 

  Key Explanation Points and Tips: 

Þ      The rationale for appointing a member of management as the MR is so the individual has sufficient authority to effectively carry out QMS responsibilities. The individual should preferably be a member of top management, but not necessarily so. The MR’s role is to facilitate, motivate and promote the deployment of QMS requirements throughout the organization, through guidance, training, teamwork and assistance. 

Þ       In carrying out QMS responsibilities, the MR may need to communicate, delegate, empower, report, oversee and interact with individuals at all levels internal and external.  

Þ      “Irrespective of other responsibilities ” means that the MR may wear other hats and the MR hat does not have to be the primary one. Regardless, once appointed as the MR, the individual must effectively perform all QMS responsibilities specified in this sub-clause.  Much of this can be done through having access to appropriate resources and through delegation. The MR may be a full-time or sub-contracted person. 

Þ      Top management may show evidence of the appointment of the MR through an appointment posting; attendance at QMS review meetings; provision of support, authorization and resources to QMS activities.  

Þ      Since quality is the responsibility of the entire organization, the role of the MR is to assist process owners in developing their processes according to the requirements of clause 4.1 and applying the requirements of other specific clauses of ISO 9001 relevant to their process. For example the purchasing, production or warehousing processes must also know how to control nonconforming product (clause 8.3); take corrective action (clause 8.5.2) or control their records (clause 4.2.4); etc. 

Þ      Reporting to top management on QMS performance may take place at management review meetings or other meetings. The information for the report will come from the results of the measurement and monitoring requirements specified in clause 8 (e.g. internal audits and customer satisfaction feedback, etc.). The MR must delegate and facilitate the compilation of this information from all the process owners.  

Þ      The report must include any recommendation to improve the QMS based on the MR’s review of all QMS measurement and monitoring data. It would be appropriate to discuss and obtain agreement with affected process owners. 

Þ      As we discussed earlier, TS 16949 focuses heavily on meeting customer and regulatory requirements and enhancing customer satisfaction. The MR must likewise promote this focus through all processes that are directly and even indirectly involved in achieving this. There are many ways of doing this including the use of training; cross-functional teams; customer focused project teams; project milestone reviews; designated customer representative; electronic interfaces with the customer; use of PPAP, FMEA’s, Control Plans, customer specifications, customer product specific work instructions, etc. 

Þ      The appointment of the MR and defining his/her responsibilities ands authority should be part of the business planning process. The MR’s activities must be included in quality planning; management review and communication processes. 

Þ      The designated customer representative(s) and their specific responsibilities must be clearly defined.  They must ensure that customer requirements are fully understood and addressed. A good way to address this, is for the customer representative to participate in the entire APQP (Advanced Product Quality Planning) process (see reference manual). Review specific requirements for the customer representative at OEM customer or IATF websites. 

Þ      The effective fulfillment of the customer representative’s responsibilities may be demonstrated by their participation in milestone and decision points related to production release; engineering release and other related activities linked to customer requirements. 

Þ      Overall QMS performance indicators may be used to determine how well the MR has performed the responsibilities defined in clause 5.5.2.