The Quality Management Center (QMC) has been available to German automotive OEM's and their suppliers from August 1997. Under the leadership of Mr. Heinz-Günter Plegniere, the QMC operates within the section of the German Automotive Industry Association (VDA) run by Dr. Thomas Schlick.

The tasks performed by the QMC are as varied as the issues surrounding quality management in the automotive industry which occupy us on a daily basis. The spectrum ranges from developing systems and methods to shaping the future of quality management systems in the automotive industry.

These developments, as well as the direction of QMC, are steered by the top-level committee regarding quality matters in the German automotive industry, the QM Committee. The QM Comittee is formed by VDA members and consists of the Quality Management Directors of all the automotive OEM's, an equal number of suppliers, and the VDA represented by one of its Executive Directors.

The operational areas of the VDA-QMC are structured as follows:

• Specialist department supervising the VDA-QMC Working Groups
  The 19 Working Groups, which are engaged in a wide range of automotive quality management-related subjects, are comprised of Quality management experts delegated by the automotive OEM's and their suppliers.
• IATF Oversight Office
  The VDA-QMC Oversight Office represents the German automotive OEM's and suppliers at the IATF.
• Training and Further Education
  The primary task of the VDA-QMC training department is to convey the output of the Working Groups to employees of the automotive industry via sector-specific QM training programs. Our main advantage lies in being able to create the content of the training seminars and have them conducted by the same VDA-QMC experts "under one roof".

method park is a software engineering product developer and service provider. Our services include training, consulting, engineering, software development on customers behalf, requirement analysis and testing. In that range we have specialized on software process improvement (CMMI, SPICE), project management and object orientated software technology. Supporting process and project management in development projects we offer the web-based project portal project kit.

Established in 2001 and based in Erlangen, currently method park employs a team of 68, with offices in Erlangen, Berlin, Munich and San Jose, CA/USA.

ISCN LTD (founded 1994) is an Irish SME with software development offices in Austria, with a private company ISCN Regionalstelle founded in 1997, and I.S.C.N. GesmbH founded in 2001 in Graz. ISCN co-ordinates a network of experienced consultants, is co-ordinator of the EuroSPI initiative, is the coordinator of the European Qualification Network, is the coordinator of the EU innovation manager initiative, is the project leader of a development partnership which developed ISO 15504 assessment portals, and ISCN is an accredited ISO 15504 training oragnisation to offer ISO 155504 assessor courses. Assessors from ISCN work with leading automotive firms since 1991.

Process Performance
     Improvement Services – worldwide

KUGLER MAAG CIE is the first to be asked for process performance improvements – high quality, reliable, sustainable – worldwide.

Numerous companies trust continuously in our fair cooperation, like Bosch, SiemensVDO, Volkswagen, DaimlerChrysler, BMW, Porsche, Ford, Harman/Becker, Marquardt, ViaMichelin, Magneti Marelli, Cobra, Delphi, T-Systems, Valeo, and TRW.

We provide you competent advice, independent which model is relevant for you: SPICE (ISO15504), Automotive SPICE™, CMMI®, Safety (IEC 61508, ISO WD 26262), etc.

For SPICE-based services we have more than 20 SPICE Assessors at your disposal. Among them are leading experts with more than 10 years of experience in hundreds of assessments, SPICE Principal Assessors (iNTACS™) and well-versed trainers who have qualified over 200 assessors.

KUGLER MAAG CIE is SEI partner, founding member of iNTACS™, and supports VDA-QMC adopting Automotive SPICE™.

SYNSPACE based in Basle (CH), Geneva (CH) and Freiburg (D) as well as the affiliated companies HM&S in Graz (A) and TIOBE in Eindhoven (NL) is specialised in the improvement of processes for the development of software, hardware and systems. Since 1990 sustained growth and expansion of the main process improvement focus into the Automotive, Medical, Banking and Insurance sectors. Today SYNSPACE is familiar with the highest development standards in different sectors.

In collaboration with our customers, SYNSPACE accomplishes an increase of the capability of the organisation taking into consideration constraints of cost, milestones, risks and specific safety requirements. Our guarantee of success is founded in 16 years of experience in successful method development and optimisation projects.

The SQS Group, (SQS) is Europe's largest independent provider of software testing and quality management services. After 24 years of successful operation the company has built an unparalleled reputation as the industry-leader. Customers can improve their operations and gain competitive advantage by using SQS's knowledge, built on strong methodologies, developed from decades of experience. Over this period, the company has developed extensive specialist knowledge in many vertical markets.

With over 3,000 successfully completed projects under its belt, SQS now has approximately 300 customers. Within this high quality customer base are blue-chip enterprises, including half of the DAX 30 companies, 30% of the STOXX-50 and 5 of the top 10 FTSE 100 companies. Founded in Cologne, Germany, in 1982 SQS has 700 employees (as of 1st of July 2006) around the world. SQS has a strong presence in Germany and the UK and offices in Austria, Ireland, the Netherlands, South Africa and Switzerland.

Polarion Software is a global leader of comprehensive application lifecycle solutions and services for effectively and efficiently managing the software development lifecycle. The company's innovative approach to ALM helps customers mitigate the risks and challenges associated with point offerings by delivering solutions that combine every major phase of managing the software development lifecycle into one comprehensive platform, with fully integrated tools, that is easy to install, easy to configure and easy to use. Polarion's unified ALM environment provides teams with the real-time information on the actual state of software development in their organization necessary to make intelligent, informed decisions and a significant return on investment.

The unique position of avoca GmbH is the result of a continuing search for a new approach to organisational improvement. This approach recognises that in an age of dramatic uncertainty concepts like best practices, benchmarking or core competencies make no sense any more, because essentially they are tools for equalisation not differentiation.

In order to survive inside hyper competition organisations must develop learning capabilities that go way beyond a mere "better, faster, cheaper". As a matter of fact, such capabilities do not grow out of traditional management approaches. Organisations are in need for cultural transformations enabling a new level of competitiveness. avoca is the catalyst for such transformations that keep organisational learning permanent – you set the directions!

We increase the value and competitive advantage of our customers and partners by designing, implementing, running and maintaining IT solutions on the basis of solid platforms and standards.

It is our daily business to integrate systems efficiently, we focus on processes: Business and IT processes in banking, energy, industry, insurance and telecommunication are the expertise of our consultants. We accompany our customers to accomplish the IT challenges of the future successfully: from the interface to their customers to the inte-gration of their suppliers as well as during the product development process.

IMC, IT Management Consulting at Softlab, provides solutions for IT-Governance, Architecture & Technology, Change Management, Project Management and Process Improvement.

CMMI®, SPICE and ITIL are our guarantee for quality and process performance.