Revision of VDA Volume 6.1 and 6.3

VDA 6.1

The 5^th Edition of VDA Volume 6.1 will replace the present 4^th Edition from 2010 as of 01 January 2017. From then onwards, all VDA 6.1 3^rd party audits will have to be conducted in accordance with the 5^thEdition. The new Volume is a supplement to the Volumes published so far, and is used for evaluating quality management systems under comparable conditions. It is intended to support the identification of weak points (or potentials) as well as their subsequent elimination by means of appropriate systemic corrective actions and thereby contribute to the sustainable improvement of productivity within a company.

Summary of the most important changes:

• Adaption of the contents to the essential requirements of ISO 9001:2015
• Adaption of the questions to the content of ISO 9001:2015
• Definitions of ISO 9001:2015 have been included in the requirements (e.g. opportunities and risks, interested parties, documented information)
• „Risk management“ has been highlighted
• The requirements for qualification and maintenance of qualification for 1st and 2nd party auditors have been included (previously stated in VDA Volume 6)
• Each question has been structured in a uniform manner: question, definition/terms, explanatory notes and requirements/supplements
• The explanatory notes on ISO 9000 and ISO 9004 have been removed
• The required terms and definitions are also defined in the question, if necessary
• Revision of element 5 „financial considerations regarding quality management systems“ with respect to VDA Volume „quality related costs“
• New element 20 „service provision“
• The evaluation/rating system has been transferred to VDA Volume 6 „Certification requirements“. From now on, VDA Volume 6.1 will reference to Volume 6.

VDA 6.3

The Audit Standard VDA 6.3 from 2010 has been completely revised. In the 3^rd Edition, an update and optimization was carried out, taking into account the experience gained.

Summary of the most important changes:

• Strengthening the interaction between VDA Volume 6.3 and other VDA Volumes, in particular relating to „Maturity Level Assurance for New Parts“ and „Robust Production Process“. The requirements for process-specific content have been substantiated and thus the differentiation between process audits and system audits will be intensified.
• Content-related and structural revision of questions
• The interface between hardware and software for products with integrated (embedded) software is taken into account
• Revision of content of process audit for „services“
• Adjustment of the calculation of results (each question is now equally weighted). This means that, from now on, the total points awarded are divided by the total possible number of points, and no longer divided by the total number of process stages or process elements assessed.
• Elimination of the „generic approach“
• More detailed presentation of the requirements regarding qualification of internal and external process auditors (in addition to the qualification regarding the audit standard, attention is also paid to the implementation of audits).