Quality Standards Working Group

The Quality Standards Working Group was set up in the beginning of 2007 as a platform for dialogue on quality issues between the manufacturers and the logistics service providers. Meetings are organised on a regular basis and draw the attention of an important and growing number of OEMs and LSPs – ECG members.

The initial aim of the group was to harmonise the operational standards across the industry in Europe. This aim was achieved with the publication of an ECG Operations Quality Manual, endorsed by BMW, Daimler, Ford, GM, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Volvo and VW Group. The recently published 4th version marked the end of the development phase. Future updates will take place not more often than once a year and only if really needed. The manual is available for download from the ECG website. At the last meeting of the Quality Standards Working Group, several manufacturers announced their intention to replace their in-house standards by the ECG Manual.

This year saw the completion of two other important projects of the Working Group. First of all, negotiations with the Automotive Industry Action Group, representing the vehicle logistics sector in North America, led to the joint publication of the Global Vehicle Damage Codes Standard – a set of codes due to become the international standard for damage reporting.

Second, ECG published, under the supervision of the Working Group, a set of guidelines for vehicle inspections. Today, inspection standards may be very different depending on the position in the logistics chain. As a consequence, a number of damage claims are assigned to the wrong actors. The implementation of the ECG standard will ensure that every party has the same chances of detecting damage, and that damage is clearly identified as production- or transport related. The document, called Inspection of New Vehicles in Transit, incorporates the ECG-AIAG Global Damage Codes.

The Group is always exploring new areas where harmonisation could bring efficiency gains and savings to all actors in the industry. Recently, it decided to follow the leadership of the German association VDA in creating auditing standards. A draft audit sheet for compounds was presented this year and members of the Working Group took the opportunity to formulate comments.

Following the success of the Operational Quality Manual, the Quality Standard Working Group unanimously decided, at the last meeting, to launch a similar initiative for the transport of Commercial Vehicles. ECG will take the lead of this project by editing a first draft on the basis of existing brand-specific manuals.

The increasing range of topics that the Working Group is dealing with requires the involvement of a larger number of actors. Initially gathering car manufacturers and logistics service providers, the group now also includes survey companies, insurers and national associations. At the same time, ECG is bringing the topics discussed by the group to the international forum by involving partners such as AIAG, Odette or VDA. In particular, the relationship with AIAG is promising and the two organisations plan to analyse their respective standards in search for further harmonisation opportunities.

The Quality Standards Working Group has succeeded in overcoming the traditional win-lose way of thinking which previously marked the relationships between OEMs and LSPs. Indeed, it helped everybody realise that existing inefficiencies affect both sides of the industry, and that they can be eliminated only through collaboration.
 
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