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A Look at the Efforts of a Small Gage Manufacturer…
Gaging the Challenges of
Applying the TE Supplement
By Melissa Syerson and
Gary Phillips
Publisher’s Note: This article has been
reprinted with permission from THE
INFORMED OUTLOOK Newsletter,
April 2001 issue.
C
ompleted in July 1996, the
Quality System Requirements:
Tooling & Equipment Supple-
ment (TE Supplement) provided “an
interpretation of the QS-9000 require-
ments as they apply to Tooling and
Equipment related manufacturers”.
A second edition of the supplement
for tooling and equipment (TE) suppli-
ers to the automotive original equip-
ment manufacturers (OEMs) was issued
in June 1998. A significant change in
the revised edition was the removal of a
prohibition against allowing TE suppli-
ers to “register” to QS-9000 by using the
TE Supplement.
The second edition of the TE
Supplement was designed to allow TE
suppliers to implement and register a
modified quality system that conformed
to all the requirements of ISO 9001/
2:1994 and most of QS-9000’s require-
ments but eliminated or replaced re-
quirements particular to production and
service parts supplier operations.
The expectation that the TE
Supplement would be revised in 1998 so
as to permit a modified QS-9000 regis-
tration resulted in announcements by
some OEMs in 1997 that select groups
of TE suppliers would need to meet
registration requirements linked to the
TE Supplement.
Indeed, while General Motors has
no registration requirements for its TE
suppliers and relies on their self-declared
compliance, Ford sent letters to 600
“key” TE suppliers in 1997 establishing
requirements for ISO 9001/2:1994
registration with demonstrated con-
formance to the TE Supplement by one
of two deadlines (December 31, 1998,
for the first 125 and December 31,
1999, for the 475 others).
DaimlerChrysler Corporation of
Auburn Hills, MI, sent a series of letters
beginning in 1997 to approximately
1,400 TE suppliers (later refined and
reduced to approximately 570) estab-
lishing a TE Supplement registration
deadline of July 31, 2000.
Thus, of the estimated 50,000 TE
suppliers to the automotive sector,
1,200 or so are required by the Big
Three to pursue some form of quality
system registration that involves con-
formance to the TE Supplement.
The challenge for TE suppliers is
both determining what is required to
demonstrate quality system conform-
ance to the OEMs and the reality that
most TE suppliers are fairly small orga-
nizations (less than 50 employees). Yet,
the quality systems of these suppliers—
which provide the tooling and equip-
ment used in the facilities of the OEMs
and their parts suppliers—are important
to the processes and overall quality
control in the sector.
One group of TE suppliers that has
been significantly affected by the TE
Supplement are gage manufacturers.
Gages are manufactured to inspect and/
or test and thus they “accept/reject” the
various components that are manufac-
tured for and assembled into automo-
tive vehicles. A large percentage of gages
are required to be manufactured within
very tight specification tolerances due to
the important role that they play.
Many gage companies that supply
directly and/or indirectly to the automo-
tive OEMs have been required to address
and become registered to the require-
ments of QS-9000 as modified by the
TE Supplement. At this time, there aren’t
any new registration requirements for
gage manufacturers, but those TE suppli-
ers that are not yet in compliance with
the DaimlerChrysler and Ford letters are
starting to see the consequences—re-
moval from their bid lists.
To help both gage manufacturers
still implementing quality systems in
conformance to the TE Supplement and
organizations that need to understand
the situation faced by gage manufactur-
ers, we will explore some of the difficult
issues faced by gage manufacturers and
some implementation options.
The Difficulties Faced by
Gage Manufacturers
The TE Supplement was developed
by the DaimlerChrysler/Ford/General
Motors Supplier Quality Requirements
Task Force (SQRTF) to provide a means
to demonstrate quality system conform-
ance to QS-9000 for those companies in
the tooling and equipment industry that
supply machinery and other equipment
used by the Big Three—and some of
their major Tier 1 suppliers—in the
manufacture of automotive parts and the
assembly of vehicles.
This was a very smart move by the
OEMs, since the equipment used to
manufacture production and service
parts and to assemble those parts into the
end-product is critical to the perfor-
mance of these processes and the con-
formance of the product. Unfortunately,
when you read the TE Supplement, it

2. 2 4 THE INFORMED Outlook Reprint: April 2001
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appears as if it was almost an after-
thought to have gage manufacturers
develop, implement and maintain quality
systems that conform with and could
become registered to the TE Supplement.
In applying QS-9000 as modified
by the TE Supplement to gage manufac-
turers, both small and large firms have
been challenged by some of the specific
requirements of QS-9000 and the
supplemental requirements that TE
suppliers are to follow. The TE Supple-
ment basically directs TE suppliers to
ignore some QS-9000 requirements that
do not apply to TE processes and, in
some instances, to meet other require-
ments that are meant to be more appro-
priate—and effective—for many types
of TE operations.
Keep in mind that QS-9000 is
designed to suit processes involving the
mass production of parts, while many
TE suppliers produce small quantities of
tooling and/or equipment that must be
manufactured to perform precise func-
tions (e.g., die manufacturers).
The requirements in QS-9000 itself
are very generic so as to be able to be
applied to the processes that output the
various products that are assembled into
the final product—the vehicles that roll
off the assembly line of an OEM. The
TE Supplement is very specific to TE
manufacturers that manufacture the
machinery, tools, equipment, fixtures and
dies that produce the parts for and are
used in the assembly of these vehicles.
However, gages are not used to
produce the parts that make up a vehicle
or to assemble the vehicle; gages are
used to measure or test the parts that
tooling or equipment purchased from a
TE supplier produces. In a sense, gages
are tier 2 tools. Neither the require-
ments of QS-9000 itself nor of QS-
9000 as modified by the TE
Supplement apply entirely to the pro-
cesses covered by gage manufacturer
quality systems.
This makes it difficult both for
individual gage companies that attempt
to implement a quality system to obtain
TE Supplement registration and for any
auditor that must assess the conformity
of these quality systems.
Not only is applying the TE
Supplement to a gage manufacturing
organization a difficulty, but finding a
registrar that has auditors who under-
stand the unique circumstances of gage
manufacturers is challenging. We have
found that there are few auditors with
the field expertise necessary to effec-
tively assess the conformance of gage
industry quality systems with the TE
Supplement. Thus, it is a necessity for
gage manufacturers to obtain their regis-
tration assessments from a registrar that
has auditors with industry experience in
the manufacture of gages.
Learning the Hard Way at
Dependable Gage and Tool
We learned firsthand at Depend-
able Gage and Tool Company in Oak
Park, MI, that if an auditor with little
field experience with gage manufacturers
attempts to conduct a TE Supplement
assessment of a gage company’s quality
system, the result is likely to be dissatis-
faction for all parties involved. Depend-
able Gage and Tool Company has 20
employees and designs and manufac-
tures a wide variety of gaging, design
and build, from fixture gages to semi-
automatic gages for automotive parts.
Approximately 80% of
Dependable’s business is automotive,
and most gages manufactured are on a
custom basis. Dependable supplies to all
tiers of the automotive industry and
achieved registration to QS-9000 with
compliance to the TE supplement in
December 2000. This was accomplished
in approximately a one-year timeframe.
One issue that we faced at Depend-
able Gage and Tool in having an inexpe-
rienced auditor assigned to conduct the
TE Supplement registration assessment
was the misconception—of the audi-
tor—that Clause 4.2.4, Machinery
Qualification Runoff Requirements, in
the TE Supplement should—or could—
be applied to gages.
Anyone familiar with the gage
industry also would know that it is
impossible to apply these machinery
qualification requirements of the TE
Supplement to gage manufacturing.
The TE Supplement’s runoff require-
ments are a replacement of the QS-9000
production part approval process (PPAP)
requirements. Clause 4.2.4 of the TE
Supplement has been developed to assure
that all identifiable problems are elimi-
nated before machinery, tooling or equip-
ment is integrated into a larger system or
installed at the manufacturer’s site of
operation. But it is impossible to apply
these runoff requirements to a gage.
The basics of the runoff require-
ments are for the machinery to function
and produce product for either 50/20
hours of dry run (50 hours for robots
and 20 hours for all other machinery).
The machinery, tooling and equipment
must continuously operate without
failure or intervention at the customer-
specified cycle speed to comply. This is
impossible with gages, because it is not
possible to run a gage for 50 or 20 hours
at a continuous cycle speed. This TE
Supplement requirement is therefore
inapplicable to the gage industry.
It is difficult for most organizations
in specialized industries to apply the
“benchmarking requirements” of QS-
9000 and the TE Supplement to many
aspects of their operations. QS-9000
throughout mentions the need to
benchmark and specifically requires
benchmarking-related activities in Sub-
clause 4.1.4, Management Responsibil-
ity, Business Plan. Subclause 4.1.4 states
that, as part of the business plan, “The
goals and plans should be based on
analysis of competitive products and on
benchmarking inside and outside the
automotive industry and the supplier’s
commodity.”
Remember that QS-9000 states in
its Approach: “The word ‘should’ indi-
cates a mandatory requirement with
Reprinted with permission from
THE INFORMED OUTLOOK
April 2001 issues
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some flexibility allowed in compliance
methodology.” And although the content
of the business plan is not subject to a
third-party (registrar) audit, an auditor
can verify if the organization has ad-
dressed the Subclause 4.1.4 requirements.
Many businesses inside the auto-
motive sector are highly competitive and
conceal information that would be
considered of great value for competi-
tors to benchmark against. Like many
specialty manufacturers, Dependable
Gage and Tool produces specialized
gages that it supplies to a range of cus-
tomers in a number of sectors, not just
automotive, making it difficult to sup-
ply information for benchmarking pur-
poses because of the confidentiality
requirements of other customers and the
company itself.
In this case, we used information
gathered by a tooling association in
which Dependable Gage and Tool par-
ticipated as a part of its benchmarking
process. Such information can be used
to benchmark a company against the
industry sector for compliance with QS-
9000’s requirement for analysis of com-
petitive products and benchmarking,
including outside the automotive sector.
Despite the clear benefits for almost
any organization, obtaining registration
to ISO 9001/2, QS-9000 and/or the TE
Supplement is usually a more challenging
and difficult feat for small organizations
than for larger ones. This is often because
smaller organizations lack the resources
and access to the expertise needed to
implement an effective and conforming
quality system. A large amount of man-
power is needed to develop, implement
and maintain a quality system that con-
forms to the TE Supplement or any other
set of requirements.
Implementation Options and Tools
for Gage Manufacturers
Like a majority of TE suppliers,
many gage manufacturers are small orga-
nizations with limited resources, so most
place the management representative’s
responsibilities in the hands of the plant
or quality manager. The problem is that
saddling the plant or quality manager
with the management rep’s responsibili-
ties makes it difficult to also manage the
organization’s day-to-day operations.
Clearly, the management of these organi-
zations can apply the TE Supplement to
their quality systems, but often a higher
level of expertise is needed. This is also
true for the responsibilities of the internal
auditing function.
There is an alternative implementa-
tion approach that would provide the
organization with an effective, TE
Supplement-conforming quality system
without burdening the plant or quality
manager. Many TE companies in this
situation find it beneficial, more efficient
and cost-effective to hire a consultant
with industry experience and expertise.
This individual can handle the
management representative’s function
during the implementation phase
(handing this responsibility back to an
internal management rep after registra-
tion is achieved), can lead the internal
auditing function or perform both func-
tions until the quality system is imple-
mented, effective and registered.
In addition, a gage manufacturer or
other TE supplier has available to it the
core tools of QS-9000 and the TE
Supplement. The QS-9000 catalogs
consist of a number of quality system
manuals that any automotive supplier
should count among their core imple-
mentation and registration tools.
These core tools (and modifications
of QS-9000’s definitions of the tools) are:
q Reliability and Maintainability
Guideline for Manufacturing Machinery
and Equipment (R&M Guideline). (A
guideline providing reliability and main-
tainability fundamentals, including
recommended R&M practices. The
practices include tools and techniques
for both users and suppliers of machin-
ery and equipment.)
q Potential Failure Mode and Effects
Analysis (FMEA) manual. (A guideline
providing tools and techniques for a
systemized group of activities intended
to: 1) recognize and evaluate the poten-
tial failure of a product/process and its
effects; 2) identify actions that could
eliminate or reduce the chance of the
potential failure occurring; and 3) docu-
ment the process.)
q Advanced Product Quality Planning
and Control Plan (APQP) manual. (A
manual providing guidelines designed to
produce a product quality plan that will
support the development of a product
or service that will satisfy the customer.)
q Statistical Process Control (SPC)
manual. (A manual providing an intro-
duction to SPC that is intended neither
to limit evolution of statistical methods
suited to particular processes or com-
modities nor to be comprehensive of all
SPC techniques.)
q Measurement Systems Analysis
(MSA) manual. (A manual providing an
introduction to MSA and intended to
cover normally occurring measurement
systems situations.)
These core tools are often over-
looked by TE suppliers in terms of level
of importance to quality system con-
formance. In the development of a
quality system to meet the requirements
of QS-9000 or the TE Supplement, it is
easy to mistakenly “write in” the core
tools as a part of the quality policy or
the procedures of the system, making
them subject to auditing without ac-
tively using them to implement and
manage the system. This creates addi-
tional difficulties in terms of system
nonconformances that an auditor may
report, because a QS-9000-registered or
TE Supplement-compliant supplier is
required by them to use these core tools
to support the quality system.
In other words, the manuals should
be used as reference tools only—but
references to be followed wherever appli-
cable—without being embodied within
the quality system documentation. By
not using the manuals as specified, an
organization may burden itself with more
difficult requirements than necessary.
Another technique that could assist
small TE suppliers is what could be
called an organizational approach to
quality system implementation. In the
quest to conform with and become
registered to QS-9000 as modified by
the TE Supplement, TE suppliers can
generalize many of the requirements to
the family of products produced. When
developing the required documentation
for a QS-9000- and/or TE Supplement-
conforming quality system, a family
approach may be taken.
This means that, in place of the
specialized Design FMEA, Process
FMEA, R&M plan and control plan
that are developed for each individual
job or product, DFMEAs, PFMEAs,
R&M plans and control plans can be
developed that are generic to the com-
mon processes and common aspects of
the jobs/products or generic to types of
products (e.g., fixture gages, automatic

4. 4 4 THE INFORMED Outlook Reprint: April 2001
© 2001 by INFORM & ASQ Web Site: HTTP://WWW.INFORMINTL.COM
gages, semi-automatic gages).
If all gages are manufactured
through the same processes, this makes
the concept of generic or family-compli-
ant documentation much easier to ap-
ply. Few organizations take advantage of
this approach, but it can be a very im-
portant technique for smaller firms that
specialize in one type of product.
In general, gages, dies, tools, fix-
tures and molds are manufactured to the
intent of a blueprint provided by the
manufacturer’s product design and
development team or by the customer
so as to attain the desired end result
required by the customer.
Organizations in industries that
employ highly skilled and trained
tradespeople to perform and/or manage
the production processes also will not
need to provide work instructions to
these employees to satisfy the require-
ments of the TE Supplement and QS-
9000, thereby eliminating the need for
detailed work instructions in the process
of manufacture and the operation of
manufacturing machinery.
This eliminates one more difficulty
for small organizations, like Dependable
Tool and Gage and other gage compa-
nies, that need to obtain and maintain
TE registration to meet the needs of
their automotive customers.
The fact remains that, although
challenging for small organizations,
implementation and use of a quality
system that conforms to the require-
ments of QS-9000 as modified by the
TE Supplement will benefit the opera-
tions of TE suppliers.
It is simply a matter of understand-
ing how to apply the requirements in
implementing and registering the system
so that the intent of the requirements is
satisfied and the result is a quality sys-
tem that improves processes and reduces
nonconforming product.
These results will only come with
work and an understanding of what the
TE Supplement requires, especially
when the organization involved is a gage
manufacturer or other supplier for
which the TE Supplement is not a per-
fect match. ###
Melissa Syerson is President of Syerson
Consulting and has more than nine
years of experience as well as an aca-
demic background in quality, quality
system standards and requirements (ISO
9001/2/3:1994, ISO 9001:2000, QS-
9000, and the TE Supplement), docu-
ment control and quality engineering.
She is a certified IRCA QMS Lead
Auditor and is currently a Lead Auditor
for ISO 9001/2/3:1994, ISO
9001:2000 and QS-9000 registration
and surveillance assessments for Quality
Management Institute (QMI) a division
of CSA International. Mrs. Syerson can
be reached by phone (810-293-1201) or
e-mail (melissa@syersonconsulting.com).
Gary Phillips is Shop Manager and the
TE Supplement Management Represen-
tative at Dependable Gage and Tool
Company in Oak Park, MI. Mr.
Phillips has more than 20 years of expe-
rience in the automotive and related
industries and has a Bachelor’s of Busi-
ness Administration.
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March 2001 4 Volume 6, Number 3
(page 21, ISO/CD3 19011)
(page 8, SPC GUIDANCE)
Does Your Organization Know How to Apply SPC?
ISO SPC Guidance Will Assist
ISO 9001:2000-Based QMSs
By John E. (Jack) West
F
or a number of industries, statisti-
cal process control (SPC) is an
activity that is critical to the
effective operation of a quality manage-
ment system (QMS) and to satisfying
customer requirements for product
quantity as well as quality.
SPC is a well-established quality
management tool, and some sectors
have had SPC reference manuals for use
in meeting QMS requirements for some
time (e.g., the SPC reference manual
used with QS-9000 was first issued in
1992). Yet, despite the existence of the
ISO 9000 series since 1987, ISO has
not had a good SPC guidance standard
to support this critical QMS activity as
well as the requirements of ISO 9001/2.
This situation should soon be recti-
fied when ISO 11642-1, which is pres-
ently a Final Draft International
Comment and Balloting for Draft Auditing Standard Ends
US Submits Qualified “Yes” on
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n February 13, 2001, the joint
US TAG’s Environmental
Auditor/Quality Auditor Liai-
son Committee (US Joint Committee)
submitted 80 comments and a vote to
conditionally approve the advancement of
the third Committee Draft (CD3) of ISO
19011, Guidelines on quality and/or envi-
ronmental management systems auditing.
The US vote is based on the results
of a round of comments and balloting
that concluded on January 15, 2001,
with 16 votes of approval, 3 votes of
disapproval and no abstentions.
The qualified “yes” is based on the
expectation that US concerns with
CD3’s criteria for auditor competency
and the lack of audit management guid-
ance on determining such competency
will be addressed. The ballot was not a
vote to advance CD3 to the Draft Inter-
national Standard (DIS) stage, but
rather on whether CD3 will be mature
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