Understanding The ISO/TS 16949:2002 Standard 

5.5 Responsibility, Authority & Communication  

5.5.1 Responsibility and Authority 

Top management shall ensure that responsibilities and authorities are:  

Defined and communicated within the organization 

5.5.1.1 Responsibility for Quality 

Promptly inform managers with responsibility and authority for corrective action, about products or processes that do not conform to requirements. 

Personnel responsible for product quality shall have the authority to stop production to correct quality problems. 

Production operations across all shifts shall be staffed with personnel in charge of, or given responsibility for, ensuring product quality. 

Key Explanation Points and Tips: 

Þ      Top management must establish the organization necessary to deploy the QMS. It must define the structure, hierarchy and lines of reporting. Additionally, (perhaps, through the assistance of the Human Resources function), it must ensure that duties, responsibilities and authority of all personnel are defined and communicated. All personnel must be clear on their duties, responsibilities and authority in meeting customer and regulatory requirements.  

Þ      Organization charts, job descriptions, procedures, work instructions, etc, are some of the many ways that top management may use to define and document this.    

Þ      These must be communicated and deployed, as applicable, throughout the organization. Orientation packages; appointment postings; sign-off on job descriptions; training on procedures and work instructions, etc, are some of the many ways in accomplishing this. 

Þ      The organization structure and lines of reporting; responsibility and authority of managerial functions and departments may be established by top management (business planning) and the responsibilities and authorities for the rest of the organization may be established by the HR function working with various process owners. Again, this would depend on the size, complexity and culture of the organization. 

Þ      Clause 5.5.1.1 The communication process must ensure timely reporting of serious product or process to higher level staff with authority and responsibility for decision making and provision of resources for taking corrective action.   

Þ      When product or process problems occur, the process for handling nonconformities must include a review of what actions, decisions, responsibilities, timing, etc, were involved in causing the problem to arise. Accountability across all shifts, for the actions taken as a result should be reviewed. 

Þ      The Control Plan must also be reviewed in terms of its effectiveness or inability to prevent the nonconformity.  

Þ      The responsibilities, authority, rules and conditions under which production is stopped to correct quality problems must be carefully defined. Contingency planning (see clause 6.3.2) to minimize delivery disruptions to customers must be taken into consideration.  

Þ      Ensure that any staff delegated with responsibility for product quality is adequately trained and is available on site or if off-site, is quickly available or accessible to verify product quality. The objective here is not to disrupt shift operations or cause shipping delays by creating a backlog of product requiring inspection for the next shift. 

The performance indicators for the business planning, HR process and QMS processes may be used to determine the effectiveness of planning and managing the organizational structure, responsibilities and authorities.