Evaluating this structural change of oversight bodies and registrars, one notices that 80% of the organizations did not change registrar and auditor. So the vital few companies supplying the automotive industry were not drastically affected by this change. The reduction of registrars and auditors resulted in a marked change in the 20% of the trivial many companies that had many registrars and auditors who really did not understand automotive standards.
When ISO/TS 16949: 2002 was introduced, the IATF also announced an automotive approach to process audits. Process characteristics, customer-oriented processes (COPS) and turtle analysis, or process analysis, were announced as well. These changes driven from an audit and auditor requirements perspective had severe repercussions on organizations' implementation and design of ISO/TS 16949: 2002. In 2002 and 2003, these requirements were implemented sporadically by auditors who were not sure whether they could mandate these changes. A confusing aspect of ISO/TS 16949: 2002 has been having the check step of the Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle mandate these changes. In other words, why are these requirements not clearly stated in the ISO/TS 16949: 2002 Technical Specification or in its appendix? Having these requirements presented in a roll-out meeting and taught to third-party auditors as an auditing technique was a confusing aspect of the ISO/TS 16949: 2002 roll out.