Customer-Specific Requirements Live in Somebody's Inbox
The quality system is managed properly. The OEM's own flowdowns are managed by whoever answered the last customer audit, from memory.
Automotive
The sector that industrialized quality planning. Nowhere else is so much of the work required to happen before the first good part, and nowhere else is the paperwork for it so completely specified.
ISO · International
AIAG · United States
VDA · Europe
The Shape of It
The standard is the smaller half of the problem. Customer-specific requirements sit on top of the quality system, differ by OEM, and change on their own schedules — so a supplier can be fully conformant to its own system and still fail a customer audit.
Most of what a customer audits is planned before the first good part. The core tools — APQP, PPAP, FMEA, MSA, and SPC — are where a supplier wins or loses the business, long before a certificate is checked.
What Applies
7 Documents an Auditor Is Likely to Open
The working set, not an exhaustive register. Each row prints the body that issues it, so nothing here depends on the color of the rule beside it. Customer-specific requirements sit on top of all of it and are frequently where the real work is.
ISO · Intl
ISO 9001:2026
The Base Standard. The 2026 edition was published on September 16, 2026, with transition by September 30, 2029; the base every automotive quality system is built on.
AIAG · US
AIAG APQP
Advanced Product Quality Planning. The phase gates a part passes through before it is allowed to go to volume.
AIAG · US
AIAG PPAP
Production Part Approval. Eighteen elements, five submission levels, and no shipping until the customer accepts it.
AIAG · US
AIAG-VDA FMEA
Failure Mode and Effects Analysis. Design and process, on the harmonized handbook that replaced the two separate methods.
AIAG · US
AIAG MSA
Measurement Systems Analysis. Gauge R&R — proving the measurement before trusting anything measured with it.
AIAG · US
AIAG & VDA SPC
Statistical Process Control. The joint AIAG & VDA manual, 1st edition, went on sale in July 2026; customers set the date their suppliers must adopt it. Control charts and capability, with a sampling plan that justifies them.
VDA · EU
VDA 6.3
Process Audit. Expected by German OEMs and their tiers, and scored on a different basis from a system audit.
Every standard above has a page and a free brief on QES letterhead, with its status as checked on October 24, 2026. Browse Standards & Guidance.
In Practice
Three Things That Usually Go Wrong Here
Not statistics — QES's own reading of where these systems are most often found short, from thirty years of building and auditing them.
PPAP Was Built for the Submission and Not Maintained After It
A process change three years later never triggered a re-submission, because nobody owned the question of what counts as a change.
The FMEA Has Not Moved Since Launch
Severity, occurrence and detection are exactly as they were written for the approval, though the process, the tooling and the supplier have all changed since.
A Real-World Case
An Air Bag Defect, and Test Data That Was Not True
The Takata inflator recalls cover tens of millions of US vehicles, and the criminal case that followed turned on test data.
67 millionTakata air bags recalled in the US, approximately, per NHTSA
- What Happened
- Long-term exposure to high heat and humidity can cause certain Takata air bag inflators to explode when deployed. NHTSA’s phased recalls began in May 2016 and continued through December 2019, covering approximately 67 million air bags in tens of millions of vehicles.
- What the Investigation Found
- In January 2017, Takata agreed to plead guilty to wire fraud and pay $1 billion. Three executives were indicted; in emails they allegedly referred to submitting false reports of test data to the automakers using the inflators.
- What It Cost
- NHTSA has confirmed 28 deaths in the United States from exploding Takata inflators, and at least 400 people allegedly injured. Of the $1 billion, $25 million was a fine, $125 million was set aside for people injured, and the rest went to automakers that had been defrauded.
Sources. NHTSA — Takata recall spotlight (opens in a new tab); NPR, via Texas Public Radio — Takata to pay $1 billion over air bag fraud (January 13, 2017) (opens in a new tab). A public case, summarized from the official findings and reporting cited; QES was not involved in it. Figures are quoted as published. Checked October 24, 2026.
Where to Start
Against the Clause, Not Against a Feeling
A fixed-price gap assessment — two days on your floor and in your files, from $4,200 — produces a clause-by-clause table: what you have, what the standard in your column actually requires, what is missing, and what has to be written — with an owner and a date against each line. You keep the findings whether or not you engage further.
On This Page. The standards listed are the working set an auditor is most likely to open, not an exhaustive register. Dated statements are sourced on the research page. The experience described is drawn from Marcia Weeden's employment record and is available in full on her résumé. Canceled military specifications are marked as canceled where they are still cited in contract flowdowns. Checked October 24, 2026.