AIAG's Quality initiatives span the wide array of product development, manufacturing, service, and customer experience improvement activities that challenge our member companies in today's ever changing automotive industry.

3D Model Technical Data Package Exchange Guideline

Accurate and efficient design data exchange in the Automotive Industry is critical for new product development between OEM(s) and their supply base. Without an accurate or clean data exchange, translation errors and missing information enter the data exchange process, introducing delays, non-conformances, and costs. AIAG’s 3D Model Technical Data Package Work Group will develop a guideline for exchanging product design information between customers and suppliers. For more information, click here.

Supplier & Product Reliability Assurance

The automotive industry is changing rapidly, both with the technology in the vehicle and with the suppliers used to provide the technology, and the need for an updated, consistent tool to assess supplier and product reliability has never been stronger. AIAG’s Supplier & Product Reliability Assurance work group is tasked with updating current reliability tools and ensuring they are universally applicable to suppliers and products, in both internal and external evaluation. For more information on this work group please click here.

Bar Steel Best Practices

Currently, steel mills complete assessments/surveys for each customer. Commonization of an assessment based on best practices will increase efficiency and drive quality improvement. Combining knowledge of industry experts into a common survey, which is supported by industry leaders, will promote the use of best practices for processing and quality control, raising the bar overall. For more information on this work group please click here.

Guidelines for Safety Critical Bulk/Catalog Materials

Responsibility for maintaining safety standards is crucial, and it is necessary to document who should be accountable for safety-critical bulk materials. This includes considering the responsibilities of OEMs versus Tier 1 suppliers and understanding the impact of build-to-spec versus build-to-print scenarios on safety classifications and FMEA processes. Guidance is needed for understanding the implications when bulk materials and/or catalog items become critical in safety components. 

The team is developing a guideline to consolidate existing knowledge and best practices into one reference document for managing safety-critical bulk materials/catalog items. This comprehensive guideline will provide the industry a recommendation, not a mandate, to be referenced in sourcing agreements. 

Heat Treat System Assessment

By doing a heat treat system assessment, a heat treat supplier is able to identify areas within their heat treat processes that need improvement based on industry best practices. Benefits of aligning your processes to the CQI-9 Special Process Heat Treat Assessment may include a reduction of campaigns, spills, recalls and warranty claims related to heat treated components. The management system will emphasize continual improvement, defect prevention and the reduction of variation and waste in the supply chain. For more information on this work group please click here.

Wiring Harness Quality

In recent years there has been a marked increase in quality issues with respect to wiring harness manufacture. This has been amplified by the significant increase in the need for harnesses for EV’s and HEV’s. This document is being developed to increase the level of quality control during the manufacturing process to reduce the level of warranty and build issues currently being experienced by demonstrating best practices and robust control. This document will also be applicable to ICE vehicle harnesses. The intention of this document is to reduce recalls and warranty claims and thus improve customer satisfaction.

Software Quality Assurance

Automotive software is a rapidly changing environment. AIAG agreed to create a manual to help OEM’s and suppliers control the process of releasing software into the industrial environment. The manual will provide guidance developed by OEM’s and suppliers to ensure a robust release of software, prescribing the steps and processes needed to ensure a quality release. The intention of this document is to reduce recalls and warranty claims and thus improve customer satisfaction.

VDA & AIAG MSA/SPC

In 2023 the two organizations agreed to develop jointly revised versions of the current MSA and SPC manuals. The existing manuals have been in circulation for some time, and it was decided to develop new manuals that were the same on either side of the Atlantic. This is seen as a benefit for internation organizations that operate in several territories.

Work is progressing well on the SPC document and then we will move on to the MSA manual. Both documents will be available for purchase in 2025.