The next step? VDA 6.1 to EFQM - Same basic principle as the Baldrige

The German car manufacturers wants more then VDA and wants more then TS16949. A quality system is to static. Here you have a part of the article (EFQM is like Baldridge, www.efqm.org)

Coming from the situation, that:

• quality management is strongly standards oriented;
• VDA 6.1 is routine for most companies;
• The environment of the automotive industry continuously and also rapidly changes;
• It is not currently clear where the quality management is drifting.

The quality management committee of the VDA formed new working groups in order to process that current topics. The topics VDA strategy and Business Excellence were declared in this case as the "chief topic" and processed from the working group "Strategy" itself. Assuming that the spreading of the idea of quality to all areas of a company is now unstoppable, VDA-QMC would like to provide assistance to the companies in implementing these ideas.

What is the "quality idea"? When any kind of performance (in the form of a product or service) fulfils the expected requirements, this is called quality. The working group 'Strategy' has concentrated on the following points:

• Objectives;
• Quality situation;
• Certification;
• Type approval by government authorities;
• What is new for the quality management;
• Failure;
• Requirements of a new quality management system;
• Principles.

The working group tried to step back from legal regulations and had the following objectives:

• Instead of providing evidence of a quality system, the company proves evidence of its success (e.g. more profit through the reduction of quality costs);
• A certificate in accordance with DIN EN ISO 9001/2 for the type approval is replaced by the disclosure of a self-assessment according to EFQM;
• Instead of having 'audit tourism', one incorporates the auditors in the higher qualification of employees and in support for improvement projects.

Finally: German manufacturers waive the requirement for their suppliers to have to produce a certificate and also accept other evidence as proof of a functioning quality system, e.g. a self-assessment in accordance with the EFQM Model of Excellence.
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[This message has been edited by Eugène (edited 11 July 2001).]

[Roger Eastin]

This is interesting. Are the Germans loosening or tightening? Self-certification sounds like loosening to me, but I'll bet there is an auditing scheme implied here. I wonder if German industry is seeing that ISO9001 or VDA6.1 not applied for value-added reasons only produces a shell of a QMS, so they want to put in place something like EFQM which emphasizes TQM? Could be the wave of the future!

[Elsmar Server Administrator]

Has anyone heard any more about this?

[Roger Eastin]

I haven't heard anything else. In fact, this is the only discussion I've seen on this new criteria.

[Marc]

I was just doing some searches the other night and saw this and wondered what the scoop is. Who knows. Maybe Eugène is still 'in the loop' and will respond. Then again, maybe not. People do come and go.

[Roger Eastin]

Yeah, sometimes it is hard to tell with silence. Sometimes "no news" is just that: no news. Other times it suggests that nothing is happening. If this new effort is European-based, then I think that our European colleagues would let us know of any movement.

[Hermann]

We're a German based supplier to the automotive industry and yes, we are considering efqm as an alternative. We are not in any hurry though, our ISO 9001-1994 registration runs for another 2 years. Wait and see what happens to QS 9000 / 16949 and make a decision at the end of 2002.

[Marc]

Thanks for the feedback!