Welcome to the KDENZA blog: Your Quality & Sustainability Journey with Silvie Coutuer. Read more for tips & tricks from an enthusiastic & pragmatic VDA 6.3 auditor!
VDA 6.3, an automotive Quality Management standard that is here to stay !
If you are working in the Automotive sector, you probably have been encountering the famous red book of the VDA 6.3 standard or have been asked to fill in a customer self-assessment that looks surprisingly similar to the VDA 6.3 Audit Questionnaire... This is because the VDA 6.3 Process Audit is a very useful tool as a customer to assess your supplier base, and is also a very practical tool for internal process auditors (eg. for IATF 16949) to benchmark and improve your production processes.
But how do you avoid being stressed about your next internal or external VDA 6.3 audit ? Read more for my 3 tips.
If you wait until your customer or external VDA 6.3 auditor tells you what is wrong with your VDA 6.3 audit compliance level, it is already too late and will create a lot of work for you (internally and externally), so let's discuss how to avoid this !
Understand the reason & context why you need to follow the VDA 6.3 Process Audit Standard
It is essential to understand why you receive the request for a VDA 6.3 audit: is it a specific customer requirement from an OEM customer, is it part of your external IATF 16949 certification, is it to be approved as a new supplier, is it your own organisation who uses VDA 6.3 auditors to benchmark their different sites internally, is it because the VDA 6.3 standard was upgraded,...? Based on the reason behind the VDA 6.3 Audit request, you can also understand how to prepare yourself in the best way and what the focus points of the auditors will be. Moreover, if you understand the context, this will greatly help you and your auditors in creating a useful and representative audit plan that answers the purpose of the VDA 6.3 audit, which reduces the tension on the day itself significantly.
Learn how to assess and explain VDA 6.3 audit risks
VDA 6.3 Auditors continuously need to assess risk to be able to give a correct VDA 6.3 scoring. To be able to prepare or execute an internal or external VDA 6.3 audit, you need to be able to understand the specific scoring criteria of VDA 6.3 and how to explain to your auditor what your risk is in a current specific situation. If you are not able to do that, they might give you a much harsher score than needed since they do not know your production processes in detail. This is a pity and creates unnecessary extra work and negative feedback for your organization, which could be avoided. It is much better to avoid a bad unnecessary score instead of remediating it.
Perform Mock VDA 6.3 audits and Sharpen your Skills
You can use mock VDA 6.3 audits as a kind of dress rehearsal for actual audits. This is definitely not meant to "practice" your answers until you answer like a stressed robot, but it is meant to help people to understand the structure and questions better of this very specific type of Quality Management audit. This approach significantly reduces your stress level on the actual audit day, and serves as a practical training for everybody involved in VDA 6.3 audits, which creates a culture of continuous improvement by recognizing the VDA 6.3 focus points and applying them in your daily life. To improve the effect of the mock audits, you can use an external VDA 6.3 auditor and trainer (like myself) who can not only ask the right questions, but also brings in examples and answers from other organizations, to immediately help with your VDA 6.3 improvement plan.
Conclusion
VDA 6.3 audits are a very popular and useful tool in the Automotive Supply Chain and will become even more so in the coming years. Their specific terminology should not stop you from using them in a pragmatic way to continually improve your production processes. Understand the reason & context, learn how to assess and explain the risks, and sharpen your audit skills with training & mock VDA 6.3 audits from an external VDA 6.3 auditor and expert, and before you know it, you are so experienced with the VDA 6.3 way-of-working that you could even have an unannounced VDA 6.3 audit without being stressed about it :-)
P.S. Ready to Level Up Your VDA 6.3 knowledge? Get in Touch Now! 🚀 Email info@kdenza.com or book a FREE personalized meeting with an expert VDA 6.3 auditor at https://calendly.com/kdenza/introduction. Experience fun and enthusiastic VDA 6.3 training packed with personalized examples for your company. If you prefer a practical (mock) VDA 6.3 audit instead, don't miss to book a perfect timing and contact KDENZA today!l.