"Processes cannot be understood one-dimensionally. Quam helps us in component development
from Volkswagen to uncover complex relationships and their interactions, to develop
sustainable processes and to ensure compliance with them and high quality product development
in concrete projects even across several locations".

Prof. Dr. Fabian Wolf (Management Processes,Methods,Standards | VW)

From process to project and vice versa

Organizational management with Quam in component development for the Volkswagen brand

The introduction of Quam in Volkswagen's component development ensures that product-oriented processes and project management regulations are brought into line. This establishes standards which are communicated transparently as an overall concept.

Objectives and challenges in the implementation of an organizational management system

Component development at Volkswagen is characterised by high quality standards and intensive teamwork in individual projects. In order to support the standardisation of product-oriented processes and increase efficiency in development, a system should be established that takes account of external and internal regulations such as Automotive SPICE and ISO 26262 and at the same time provides positive user-oriented support for day-to-day work. With the help of the system, predefined processes should be tailored to an individual project and the information relevant for the collaboration of the project teams should be made available in an up-to-date and centralized manner.

Quam as a foundation for organizational and project management

The previously HTML-based web presentation of the processes was not very effective to model a workflow-supported release system for processes from research and development. With Quam, it is possible to make the organizational model of component development surfable and to divide it into individual modules for projects, which serve as a basis for successful project management. Since the individual processes are linked with standards and documents, the basis for a successful introduction of SPICE is also guaranteed. SPICE (Software Process Improvement and Capability Determination) is an international standard from ISO in the automotive industry to evaluate business processes. The introduction of Quam in component development at Volkswagen enables predefined processes to be optimised and procedures to be adapted to specific situations. The aim is to develop products in accordance with recognised quality and safety standards.

Project tailoring for an individual project organization

When a new development project takes shape, the process modules are used to carefully plan a project and to check its content, scope, costs and responsibilities accordingly. Cross-business process templates form the basis for this. At present, the templates comprise approx. 100 documents and approx. 10,000 process requirements. In order to provide a suitable project environment for the specific development, the components of the organizational model required in the project are selected (project tailoring). Individual project participants see the project-specific Quam as an individual organizational environment that is tailored to the specific project. All project-related documents, work instructions, milestones and methods are provided centrally and up-to-date.

Quam supports system development at a high level

The specifications and standards in product development - and thus also the standardized processes in component development - were derived from the experience gained in projects. A system-supported, process-oriented project planning in advance enables the desired standardization in projects, which leads to high-quality products. Quam supports the project modeling, representation and adaptation. The definition of different roles and the consistent data management in SharePoint enable an active change management and an efficient cooperation in the projects. The greatest advantages for Volkswagen are the gain in efficiency through the central provision of content, the flexibility of the business units to adopt their own process know-how in a tailor-made manner, and the degrees of freedom in the sustainable maintenance and expansion of Quam and Microsoft SharePoint.

As a project modeling tool based on SharePoint, Quam supports the introduction of different standards in companies, such as ISO 9001 or SPICE. The use of Quam leads to a significantly reduced effort for the consistent provision of project spaces and thus to reduced development costs for new electronics projects.