Quality Certifications For Automotive Suspension Components from Auto Parts Manufacturers

For B2B buyers of aftermarket and OEM suspension components, auto parts manufacturer quality certifications are a reliable starting point for deciding whether the auto parts you receive will meet the performance and safety standards your customers expect.

Certifications provide a benchmark for supplier reliability

Certifications have been used in the automotive industry to provide a benchmark for supplier reliability for many decades, and there are very good reasons for this. Certifications for auto parts, and especially suspension components, offer reassurance that safety-critical parts like control arms, tie-rod ends, stabilizer links, ball joints and bushings will not fail and cause unacceptable risks to drivers, passengers and other road users.

• IATF 16949 automotive industry standard requirement
• ISO 9001 quality management systems
• ISO 14001 environmental management
• ISO 45001 or equivalent workplace standards
• Material and product-level certifications

Suspension component manufacturers can make claims about the quality of their production processes and materials, but certification supports those claims with independently audited and verified evidence of quality. The global nature of the OEM and aftermarket auto parts markets today requires that auto parts manufacturers must demonstrate their compliance with internationally recognised standards for ISO and IATF certification.

Which certification standards are essential for suspension component manufacturers?

When you are looking to contract with a third party suspension component manufacturer there are two certification standards that are essential, these are IATF 16949 and ISO 9001. There are also additional ISO standards that are desirable to ensure environmental and health and safety standards are met.

IATF 16949 is the essential standard for OEM auto parts manufacturing

IATF 16949 is the essential standard for auto parts manufacturing, including suspension component design, engineering, production and testing requirements. The IAFT certification was developed by the International Automotive Task Force (IATF) in collaboration with ISO as a refinement of a prior ISO standard with specific measures designed to meet the needs of Tier 1 OEM automotive manufacturing.

• Advanced Product Quality Planning (APQP)
• Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA)
• Measurement System Analysis (MSA)
• Statistical Process Control (SPC)
• Production Part Approval Process (PPAP)

For OEM suspension component supply the IATF standard is an essential and non-negotiable requirement. For aftermarket component supply it is highly desirable, as it provides industry specific, industry negotiated and defined standards that include specifications and requirements that apply to the entire design and production cycle including quality planning, failure mode and effects analysis, and part approval processes, inspection, packaging and shipping.

IATF 16949 certification must be issued by an IATF approved certification organization, and indicates in the certification the products and scope of the certification, including manufacturing site. You should check that the certification applies to the products and processes that you wish to obtain from the supplier. Aftermarket suspension component distributors can take additional reassurance from working with a supplier that holds IATF 16949 certification for any part of their auto parts manufacturing business as it demonstrates capabilities to manufacture components to OEM equivalent standards.

ISO standards provide international recognition of quality management

There is one ISO standard that is essential for international recognition of quality management in suspension component manufacturing, and that is ISO 9001. All suppliers of auto parts at any level for international distribution and OEM supply must be expected to hold this baseline certification for quality management.

The two desirable ISO standards that you should expect to see are ISO 14001, for environmental management and ISO 45001 for environmental management and workplace health and safety. There are, however, national and local standards that also demonstrate a company meets these requirements, especially for environmental and health and safety standards, and these may be of a higher level than the ISO certifications.

Comparing IATF 16949 & ISO 9001 standards

The table below gives an overview of the difference between the IATF and ISO quality standards and indicates the significant added value of IATF 19649 certification over the baseline standards of ISO 9001 for auto parts manufacturing.

As you can see from the table, IATF is automotive specific, covers the full production lifecycle, and demonstrates Tier 1 OEM auto parts manufacturing capabilities to the standards required by all major automotive brands.

SH Auto Parts: Auto Components to International Standards

SH Auto Parts quality and manufacturing processes meet or exceed IATF 16949 and ISO 9001 standards to provide our OEM and aftermarket auto component customers with the reassurance of certified, reliable, safe suspension components.

• IATF 16949:2016 Application of ISO 9001 for Automotive Production
• ISO 14001:2023 Environmental Management Systems
• ISO 14001:2017 Environmental Management Systems
• ISO 9001: 2022 Quality Management
• ISO 9001: 2018 Quality Management

Contact us to find out more about our IATF and ISO certified auto component manufacturing and supply capacities and capabilities for new and historic OEM, ODM and aftermarket suspension components.