Straight answers.

A readiness score against IATF 16949:2016, broken down clause by clause. The Audit Defense Pack itself (PDF): an executive summary, each finding with its source record, ranked actions with owners and due dates, and a plain list of what your records could not show. An audit checklist holding the auditor's questions for each clause where your records fall short, plus the whole IATF 16949 question bank as a self-audit workbook. An evidence folder (ZIP) sorted by clause, with a manifest, and a registers workbook (XLSX). A Quarterly Business Review for your leadership. A 60-minute review call to go through it all.

Both sample reports are free to download.

Neither. The pack helps you get ready for an audit; it does not certify you and it is not a third-party audit. IATF 16949 certificates come only from a certification body the IATF recognises.

No. You learn where you stand, which of your evidence holds up and which fixes to start with. The audit result, and what you do about the pack, stay with you.

IATF 16949:2016, clause by clause, together with ISO 9001:2015, the standard IATF 16949 builds on. It also reads your customer-specific requirements and the AIAG core tools that sit behind them: APQP, PPAP, FMEA, SPC, MSA and control plans.

Working to something else? Tell us on the fit check and you will get a straight answer on whether a Pack would help.

Yes, to the extent your records hold them. Send your customer-specific requirements register (Ford, GM, Stellantis, BMW, Mercedes-Benz or any other customer) and the pack tests whether each requirement reached the process or supplier it governs. In the sample plant, seven never had.

It reads your PPAP status, PFMEAs, control plans, layout inspections, gauge studies and capability results together, part by part. When one part carries an unsigned warrant, High-priority failure modes missing from the control plan and a capability study on a gauge with no Gage R&R, the pack says so as one problem, not three.

Yes. Send your CQI special process register (for example CQI-9 heat treat, CQI-11 plating, CQI-12 coating, CQI-15 welding or CQI-27 casting) and the pack flags assessments that are overdue, never made, or carry open findings.

Partly. The analysis is AI-assisted, every figure in it is traced to your own records, and anything the records cannot back up is left out rather than guessed. An automotive quality professional reviews each page before release, so no compliance conclusion reaches you unchecked.

No. You send exports; we install nothing and connect to none of your systems.

It can give you the baseline your customer's supplier quality engineer will ask for: what your records show, which issues share a cause, and ranked actions with an owner on each. For a supplier under CS1, CS2 or a new-business hold, the CS1 / CS2 / New Business Hold Exit Sprint is $17,500 fixed.

Only your customer can lift controlled shipping or a hold. We do not promise that outcome.

Often, yes. The clock starts when your data is complete, so the sooner the templates are filled in, the sooner you have the pack. Tell us the date on the fit check.

Your existing exports, pasted into our Excel templates. To start, seven are enough: CAPA or 8D log, nonconformances (NCR log), calibration list, training matrix, supplier list, document register and audit findings.

There are 32 templates in all, including PFMEAs, control plans, PPAP, SPC, MSA, layout inspection, customer-specific requirements, CQI special processes, traceability and supplier receipts. Each extra register lets the pack assess more, and the pack lists what it could not assess and the reason.

You can. Use Home > Paste > Values so none of the source formatting comes across, then clear whatever the colours highlight. Line your columns up with ours by their headers rather than their order. Where you lack a value, leave the cell empty instead of guessing.

Every sheet is locked so each file reads identically, and that is how the pack gets back to you in five business days. Do not rename, move, add or delete columns. Other formats, such as your own CSVs, are taken only if agreed beforehand, and they lengthen the timeline.

Personal data beyond names, employee IDs and roles, and your customers' confidential program data (for example TISAX-labelled drawings or vehicle program information) beyond what the quality records themselves contain. In doubt about a record? Check with us first.

A template holds room for 1,000 records with its row checks working (5,000 for supplier receipts), and there are 32 templates in the set. A single file may be up to 20 MB. One upload carries up to 40 files and 60 MB, and the same link works again whenever you have more to add.

For a sense of scale, the sample plant sent 1,967 records across 32 templates. If a register of yours will not fit in its template, let us know before uploading.

Once your invoice is paid, we email you a private upload link. Send the templates back through it, not as email attachments.

We work on it on an encrypted workstation, and the AI-assisted analysis runs through Anthropic, which does not train its models on our clients' data. No two customers share a store: yours is loaded into one of its own.

The full detail is on our data and security page.

One reviewer, who checks your files and reads every page of the pack, and Anthropic, which processes the analysis for us. Nobody else, your customers included. If you involve your quality consultant, they see only what you pass to them.

Until 30 days after your pack is delivered, unless you continue with a subscription; sooner if you ask. Deletion is confirmed in writing.

1. The fit check: about two minutes online.
2. Our founder reviews your answers personally and confirms the fit by email.
3. With the fit confirmed, the founder emails the Services Agreement, the Excel templates and an invoice. Nothing is paid online.
4. Your plant signs, pays the invoice, fills the templates from its exports (2–4 hours) and sends them back.
5. We check the data and build the pack, and a person reviews it, all within five business days of accepting your data as complete.
6. A 60-minute review call takes you through it.

Each step in more detail: how it works.

Five business days, counted from the day we accept your data as complete. That day you get either an acceptance email or a list of what is still missing. Paying the invoice does not start the clock; complete data does.

Plan on 2–4 hours moving your exports into the templates, and an hour for the review call. If you would like a hand at the start, book the optional 15-minute intake call.

$3,500 per plant for Packs 1 to 5 at the founding price, $4,250 for Packs 6 to 15, and $5,000 at list from Pack 16. Payment is by invoice, which our founder sends with the agreement once your fit is confirmed; nothing is paid online. There is no implementation fee.

See the full price list and exactly what is included.

That is what the fit check is for: it tells you before you spend anything. When a plant is not a fit, we tell it so. Full terms sit in the Audit Defense Pack Services Agreement, which you sign before paying the invoice.

Two conversations: a short interview the week after delivery and a 15-minute check-in at day 30, with candid answers in both. A testimonial is never required; if you are pleased and want to give one, you approve every word.

Nothing, unless you want it to. If you want the pack kept current (monthly refresh, quarterly review, action tracking), the Standard Facility subscription is $10,000 a year per plant at the founding price, held for three years (list $18,000), and your Pack fee is credited if you sign within 30 days of delivery.

Tier 2 and Tier 3 automotive suppliers working to IATF 16949, especially with a surveillance or recertification audit, a customer escalation, a launch or a recovery coming up, and evidence spread across spreadsheets, the ERP, email and a QMS nobody fully trusts.

Yes. Independent IATF 16949 consultants can use the pack for a client. It is built from that client's records, one plant per pack, and the client's data follows the same rules as anyone else's. On the fit check, pick “consultant” and describe the client plant.

No. Usually the supplier's own quality or operations lead buys the pack, and the review call takes them through the findings and the ranked actions.

Possibly, but a Pack earns most when there is a date to work toward, because it puts the fixes in order. If waiting would serve you better, the fit check says so.