posted 11 July 2001 04:31 AM               

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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