May 16, 2014 Case Studies A case study in the approval to the global automotive specification ISO/TS16949. The activity focussed on the achievement of the global automotive specification ISO/TS16949 through the partnership of Setco, The Northwest Automotive Alliance and SMMT Industry Forum. “After a lot of hard work and excellent support from our employees, we felt confident and ready for the audit. The audit went very well, with few problems identified by the auditor. It was great to be able to demonstrate the tremendous improvements we had made through the project.” Matthew Kershaw, Project Manager, Setco Automotive UK Ltd The Customer Setco is a leading manufacturer of Medium & Heavy Duty Commercial Vehicle Clutches under the ‘LIPE’ brand. It has a 30 year established credential for building high quality, durable products at globally competitive prices. Setco’s UK operation, based in Haslingden in Lancashire, operates an in-house Research & Development department, manufacturing and warehouse facility with approximately 30 employees. The Customer’s Needs The ambition within the company is to accelerate the pace of design and development and take advantage of the brand name and reputation to further develop sales in the European Union with the Lipe Clutch products. Although the Lipe clutch brand had always had a good reputation with its customers, registration to the global automotive specification ISO/TS16949 was required to continually improve and grow business with Original Equipment Manufacturers. Setco identified that support for implementation was available through the Northwest Automotive Alliance (NAA) Network Forum. The IF Solution Setco identified that support for implementation was available through the North West Automotive Alliance (NWAA) Network Forum. Steve Haworth, Director of Setco explained: “As a small company, we were very nervous to embark on the implementation of ISO/TS16949. Our view was that this was for larger companies, and would be a massive administration for a SME. However, to help in the future growth of Setco, we decided that we had to proceed.” “We met with NWAA and their provider SMMT Industry Forum, to develop an implementation plan, and to discuss the implications of ISO/TS16949. After a detailed gap analysis we started with the implementation of improvement actions. Although we thought we ran a tight ship, it soon became apparent, through review of data, that we had many areas to improve.” “Although we were approved to ISO9001, the documented system we had did not reflect how we operated and was of little benefit. We decided to start again from scratch.” After a year of developing an effective process based system, Setco selected the global certification body, BSI to undertake the 3rd party audit. Matthew Kershaw, Project Manager for the TS16949 implementation at Setco, remarked: “After a lot of hard work, and excellent support from our employees, we felt confident and ready for the audit. The audit went very well, with few problems identified by the auditor. It was great to be able to demonstrate the tremendous improvements we had made through the project.” “Achievement of ISO/TS16949 will now allow us to tender and win new business, giving tremendous opportunities for the future. It will give us the business framework to help us manage the growth, while focusing on customer satisfaction. We now have a system that reflects our business activities and we have a clear set of key performance indicators so we can closely monitor how we are performing and take prompt action to address any shortfalls or concerns. We could not have achieved this without the help and support of SMMT Industry Forum.” Setco are one of the smallest companies in the North West to achieve ISO/TS16949 registration and one of only 650 companies in the whole of the UK to achieve the award. Reference file: Download Case Study (pdf)
