How Process Approach Helps Automotive Operations Be More Effective and Efficient

Wise automotive business managers strive for processes that are both effective and efficient. A process is effective when it achieves its intended purpose and the customer receives what was promised; if it’s efficient, it means it didn’t consume more time and resources than necessary.

An effective process is not necessarily an efficient one, and vice versa. For example, a process that is able to produce a great result may also require too much time and resources, leading to unnecessary costs and reduced productivity. Conversely, a streamlined and smooth process might deliver a subpar product, resulting in complaints and noncompliance issues.

Although effectiveness and efficiency are two different things, there is an approach to quality management that takes care of both simultaneously, helping organizations achieve the best results with the least amount of resources: it’s called process approach.

The process approach is a way of developing an organization by focusing on the improvement of its processes. It can be divided into four parts:

• identifying the processes
• defining their goals
• monitoring their performance
• making continuous improvements.

Typically, a process consists of three components: inputs, actions, and outputs. Each one can be analyzed and evaluated separately. However, a process approach never considers processes in isolation, rather as part of an interconnected system where outputs can be inputs for another process. For example, a successful quoting and estimating process that wins new business becomes the starting point for a planning process that encompasses other areas such as product planning, manufacturing, supplier development, or purchasing.

A process approach offers clear benefits to automotive organizations, as it helps them:

• consistently meet customer requirements
• optimize the use of resources
• clearly define responsibilities, for more effective teamwork and collaboration
• identify opportunities for improvement.

Since the 2000 update of the ISO 9001 standard for quality management systems, the process approach has become an integral part of IATF 16949. While the focus of the standard is on the efficiency of processes, there are clauses addressing resources optimization and the performance. During an IATF 16949 audit, auditors will examine not only compliance with the standard requirements, but also how well processes deliver the desired outputs, their operational costs, and how well they integrate with subsequent processes.

The adoption of the process approach marked a turning point for IATF 16949, as it made the certification not just about compliance, but also a program to drive automotive businesses forward through robust process-oriented quality management.