Abstract
Nowadays car manufacturers and big OEMs tend to use outsourcing as a significant resource of their own production potential when competing on a very demanding market.
Parts and components that an automobile equipment supplier develops have to correspond to the requirements of the car manufacturer but at the same time the supplier can set the development trend of a certain part through its own know-how. Thus the development procedure must contain all the elements and actions that are needed to ensure a high quality level of the final product. The development procedure of the new part or component is interweaved with the permanent harmonization of requirements between the customer-consignee and supplier. In order to prove the validity of the proposed designs the supplier has to invest into research and testing capabilities.
Testing for the purpose of development and/or verification of a new component design is therefore an essential part of the RMS 1 -based design process [1,2]. Development tests provide the information needed during the design process while verification tests have to prove that the product would satisfy all the customer's requirements.
The paper shows an example of a component verification test for a big car manufacturer at a relatively small OEM supplier. The results of such testing on the sample series should be presented to the customer as a proof of conformance of the product to the customer requirements during- and at the end of the development stage. In case of unfavorable results corrective measures can be triggered.
On the basis of such results further interaction between customer and supplier takes place. Therefore a careful conduction of the testing is of crucial importance for the quality of the final product.