AIAG CQI-15 Welding System Assessment: Complete Guide & Checklist

If your facility welds structural or safety-critical parts for automotive OEMs, the AIAG CQI-15 Welding System Assessment is not optional — it is the industry baseline. Yet it consistently lands at the top of supplier development audit findings because many plants treat it as a paperwork exercise rather than a process discipline tool. This guide explains the five assessment categories, how scoring works, what auditors flag most often, and how inline monitoring closes the gaps faster than documentation alone.

What Is AIAG CQI-15 and Who Requires It

The Automotive Industry Action Group (AIAG) CQI-15 is a standardised assessment tool developed to evaluate the maturity of welding systems at automotive suppliers. It covers resistance welding, arc welding (GMAW, GTAW, FCAW), laser welding, and hybrid processes. The framework mirrors the structure of CQI-9 (heat treatment) and CQI-11 (plating): a scored questionnaire mapped to five process areas, producing a numeric compliance rating per section.

OEMs that formally reference CQI-15 include General Motors (via BIQS/PPAP expectations), Ford (Q1 supplier development), Stellantis, and increasingly Tier 1s who pass the requirement down the supply chain. Under IATF 16949:2016, customer-specific requirements from these OEMs are binding, so a CQI-15 gap becomes an IATF nonconformity — not just a customer feedback item.

The current edition is CQI-15 2nd Edition. If your plant is using a pre-2014 version, update: the 2nd edition restructured the process table questions and added robustness criteria for equipment monitoring.

The Five CQI-15 Assessment Categories

CQI-15 organises its questions into five Process Areas. Each area contains a set of questions rated on a four-point scale: 1 = Uncontrolled, 2 = Beginning, 3 = Controlled, 4 = Optimised. A score below Controlled (3) in any area triggers a mandatory corrective action request from the OEM auditor.

CQI-15 vs ISO 3834 vs IATF 16949: How They Fit Together

These three frameworks overlap without being redundant:

• ISO 3834 sets the absolute minimum quality requirements for fusion welding processes — weld procedure qualification, welder qualification, inspection criteria. It is process-level.
• IATF 16949 is the automotive QMS standard. It requires you to identify applicable customer-specific requirements (CSRs) and implement them. CQI-15 is typically a CSR.
• CQI-15 is the assessment instrument. It does not replace ISO 3834; it audits whether your production welding system is actually living up to it and to automotive production robustness expectations.

In practice: ISO 3834 compliance builds the foundation, CQI-15 verifies the roof holds under production pressure. A facility with ISO 3834-2 certification that also meets CQI-15 requirements will pass the audit without heroics. A facility with only a certificate on the wall but no runtime controls will fail PA5 regardless.

Applicable standards to reference in your WPS and audit evidence package:

• ISO 3834-2 — Comprehensive quality requirements for fusion welding
• EN 15085 — Railway welding (if applicable — demonstrates adjacent discipline)
• ISO 5817 — Weld quality levels B / C / D (acceptance criteria)
• AWS D1.1 — Structural welding (common US OEM reference)

Preparing for a CQI-15 Audit: 12-Point Checklist

Use this as a pre-audit gap analysis. Walk the production floor with this list, not the conference room.

1. WPS available at workstation — not in a binder in the office. Auditors check the operator’s station.
2. WPS parameters match current PQR — recalculate heat input if wire/gas has changed since original qualification.
3. Welder qualification certificates current — continuity gaps of more than 6 months invalidate ISO 9606 qualifications without re-test.
4. Consumable traceability at weld level — lot number, heat number, certificate linked to the specific joint, not just to the batch received.
5. Equipment calibration records — amp/volt meters, wire feed speed sensors, timer circuits. Current certificates, not expired.
6. Preventive maintenance log — contact tip life, liner replacement schedule, water cooler checks for GMAW robots.
7. First-off / first-article weld inspection records — dated, signed, disposition documented.
8. Nonconformity and CAPA records — at least one closed-loop example per year per welding line.
9. Visual inspection criteria posted — ISO 5817 level or drawing callout must be available at the inspection station.
10. Repair and re-inspection procedure — documented, authorised, traceable to original part.
11. SPC or monitoring data for critical parameters — voltage, current, wire feed speed. Trend data, not spot checks.
12. Management review evidence — welding quality metrics included in management review minutes.

Common CQI-15 Findings and How to Address Them

Based on typical supplier development audit results, the five most frequent non-conformances are:

1. PA5 — No runtime parameter verification WPS says 24 V / 220 A. The machine has no logging. The operator “checks visually.” Fix: install inline monitoring that logs voltage, current, and wire feed speed per-weld. A digital record closes this finding in one audit cycle.

2. PA4 — Welder continuity records with gaps A welder was on sick leave for 7 months. No continuity test was performed. Fix: automate continuity tracking — flag qualifying periods before they lapse, not after. See our guide on welder continuity records.

3. PA3 — Consumable traceability stops at goods-in The plant receives certified wire, but the lot number is not traceable to the finished weld. Fix: scan or log consumable lot at loading, tie to work order / serial number in the MES or quality system.

4. PA2 — Calibration expired on secondary instruments Primary welder calibrated, but the portable amp-clamp used for spot checks has an expired certificate. Auditors check every measurement device in the chain. Fix: include all auxiliary instruments in the calibration register.

5. PA1 — Welding not included in management review KPIs The QMS has management review, but welding defect rates are reported under “general scrap” rather than as a dedicated welding KPI. Fix: add a welding-specific metric (weld NCR rate, first-pass yield, rework hours) to the management review agenda.

How Real-Time Weld Monitoring Strengthens Your CQI-15 Score

The PA5 questions are the hardest to answer with paper alone. CQI-15 asks whether production welds are made within the WPS parameter window — every weld, every shift, not just during the audit walk. Inline monitoring systems answer this with objective data.

A thermal vision or arc-monitoring system logs weld energy distribution, parameter envelopes, and anomaly events with a timestamp and part ID. This gives you:

• Automatic parameter compliance record — every weld either inside or outside the WPS window, logged without operator action.
• SPC charts on critical parameters — trend data auditors can see, not spot-check logs fabricated the week before the audit.
• Traceability to part level — weld ID linked to consumable lot, operator, equipment ID, and shift. One query answers all PA3 traceability questions.
• Early-warning CAPA triggers — parameter drift triggers an alert before the weld escapes to the next station. Fewer NCRs means a cleaner CAPA history for PA1.

Therness HeatCore and the inline weld monitoring service are built around exactly these requirements. Customers who deploy inline monitoring typically close PA5 findings in the first re-audit and improve PA1 scores by providing data-backed management review inputs.

Related: ISO 5817 Weld Quality Levels · ISO 3834 Audit Checklist for Welding Manufacturers · Welder Continuity Record Requirements