IATF 16949 requires organizations to develop well-defined processes from evolving design concepts through customer acceptance of production parts. As systems evolve, organizations analyze design and production risks earlier in the design cycle to reduce the development costs,  ultimately passing these cost savings to customers. Process capabilities must be analyzed and understood with the intention of maintaining minimum industry standards. and driving improvement. Processes must be controlled using statistical methods. Measurement uncertainty must be quantified to ensure effective process and product monitoring. Simply to automotive industry has established requirements for organizations in the automotive supply chain that ensure system consistency from top to bottom. The agreed management system standard is IATF 16949 certification implemented in coordination with ISO 9001:2015.

These methods and system conformity are only effectively implemented through the development and use of process-based management systems. IATF 16949 training covers the reference materials published by the Automotive Industry Action Group (AIAG) that specify the requirements for effective IATF 16949 systems.