What are the most common issues for organizations in IATF 16949?

According to the results of third-party audits (certification bodies) in the IATF World Database, the most common problem for organizations applying the requirements of the IATF 16949:2016 automotive standard is the area of non-compliance management and corrective action and the closely related problem-solving area.
 

Top 10 Pareto of major discrepancies from third-party audits according to IATF 16949:2016 at the end of 2019.    

The global trend shows that organizations are not taking effective corrective action for non-conformities identified during third-party audits, and their problem-solving processes are not effective in resolving these problems. Therefore, follow-up non-conformities are identified during control audits, together with other significant non-conformities that are recorded for the corrective action process.
 

The key to successful problem solving is to find and eliminate the root cause, the so-called "root" of the problem.
 

If the root cause is not clearly identified, it is tempting to resolve the symptoms or impact of the problem instead. Although the problem appears to be "solved", the root cause reappears. The recurrence cycle is often very costly because it consumes resources (time, materials, IS, etc.). Organizations should avoid this.

Problem solving can be defined as the process of identifying the root causes. Its goal is to solve problems through a structured and team approach. Many organizations approach problem-solving by usually responding to a process's failure by removing the consequences of the failure. However, by solving the problems, the organization can significantly contribute to its continuous improvement. The ultimate goal of effective problem solving is to apply the team's lessons learned to prevent failures before failures occur.