Product safety

If after deep analysis of your system you haven`t recognized place for Special Characteristics relating to safety, meaning characteristics which can affect safety or compliance with regulations, fit, function, and also customer safety or employee safety in the production area, it is okay to say that you have no Special Characteristics regarding safety. 

Special Characteristics represent product or process characteristics that can affect safety compliance, regulatory compliance, fit, function, performance, requirements or subsequent processing of the product. Special Characteristics must be documented, in drawings, FMEA analysis, Control Plan, Auto-control Plan, and work instructions. Special Characteristics must be marked in a sense of symbol and definition, and in that way represented to the customer. If there are Special Characteristics, there has to be a strategy for controlling and monitoring, and customer approval.

If the TIER2, TIER1 or OEM haven`t recognized place for product safety, it is a good sign that there is no need for Special Characteristics, since their requirements are often more strict than the standard IATF 16949 itself.The recommendation is to check your system once again and to do deep analysis, just to be sure you haven’t missed something.

NOTE: VW AG’s suppliers are required to appoint and employ a product safety representative. These apply both to the OEM directly, and the whole supply chain.

For more information, please see the following article:

Ensuring product safety according to IATF 16949 https://advisera.com/16949academy/blog/2017/09/20/ensuring-product-safety-according-to-iatf-16949/