So far there have been four GUKSA customer days - never before has it been rung in by such heavy snowfall. Nevertheless, 43 participants found their way to the Hotel Mercure in Lüdenscheid on 31.01.2019 in anticipation of the first-class lectures. As in the past, the GUKSA Come Together Day 2019 was adapted to the market needs due to new insights from the market and OEMs.

The aim was to offer an event that would give the participants a good insight into the practical experience of the supplier industry with regard to risk management with the risk and process-oriented audit system (RPAS®).

The RPAS® system has proven itself in practice

This system has been developed by GUKSA GmbH and Ingenieurbüro MCS GmbH since 2010 and is currently used worldwide by a leading OEM in supplier and development audits.

During the presentations, Mr. Ferreyra from the BMW Group and Mr. Strauch from Aptiv (formerly Delphi) clearly demonstrated that the audit results have improved considerably since using RPAS® and that the administrative and operational risks have been significantly reduced.

The reason for the high acceptance of the RPAS® audits is due to the risk presentation with degrees of fulfillment in a risk matrix instead of the presentation of the audit results on the basis of major and minor deviations.

Based on the findings from the market, courses were developed with the engineering office MCS in 2018 with the TÜV Nord Akademie in order to be able to offer personal certifications with the Management System Risk Coordinator and TÜV Risk Coordinator and TÜV RPAS®-Auditor. The new courses even more important now that customer requirements and risk assessment are more significant than ever due to the change in ISO 9001.

Customer-specific requirements from different points of view

A successful addition to the practical experience was the knowledge gained by TÜV Nord about the audits carried out in accordance with IATF 16949. In connection with IATF 16949, many OEMs repeatedly have additional requirements (CSR), which is reflected, for example, in quality assurance agreements.

How these are to be evaluated from a legal point of view was explained comprehensively by Dr. Ehring. Further activities with GUKSA GmbH are also planned here, such as the software-supported legal valuation of customer-specific requirements.

Customer Strategy Team – responding to customer wishes

The good cooperation within GUKSA's Customer Strategy Team (CST) and its good results were also positively highlighted in another presentation. GUKSA wants to maintain a close and productive relationship with its customers in the future. Against this background, this strategy team consisting of long-standing customers was founded in mid-2018. The results have an active influence on product and service development at GUKSA. One of CST's goals is to integrate the information security standards (TISAX) required by the automotive industry into the audit management system RPAS® .

In the breaks and during the lunch together, there were again excellent opportunities for networking and exchange of experience with well-known participants from the automotive sector at this customer day.

Due to the overall very positive reception, the next Customer Day is expected to take place in 2021, again with exciting topics from the automotive sector.

BMW RPAS - Reasons and findings from the BMW RPAS audits carried out

Diego Ferreyra
Manager Commodity Quality Driver Assistance Systems and Sensors MD 202 (BMW Group Purchasing and Supplier Network)

Quality assurance agreements from a legal point of view

Dr. Philipp Ehring
Attorney at Law (GH Legal)

Promotion of dialogue between BMW and suppliers based on BMW RPAS audit results

Rudolf Strauch
Quality System Manager Europe (APTIV Delphi Deutschland GmbH)