In a major initiative, The Procurement Forum and The SPICE User Group have been working together with the major motor vehicle manufacturers, their assessors and representative bodies. A process assessment model, tailored from ISO/IEC 15504, the international standard for process assessment, has been developed for application within the automotive domain. Suppliers are now being asked contractually to have an assessment performed and to meet target capability levels.
Automotive SPICE™ will be formally launched at a special event to be held on the 25 April 2006 at the Munich IHK (Chamber of Commerce), Germany. The motor vehicle manufacturers will be present at the event to convey their official policy and approach towards supplier capability assessments.
Today, more than 85% of the functionality in the modern motor vehicle is controlled by software. As project schedules get even shorter, the pressure on software development and target hardware costs get ever greater, and the potential recall and safety issues due to electronic systems malfunction becomes ever more calculable.
Both the motor vehicle manufacturer and the supplier need to take action to address these issues. Suppliers have not been slow to take action. Many forward looking companies are already utilising process assessment techniques as a basis for identifying areas for improvement both to meet their business needs and the demands of their customers.
The motor vehicle manufacturers have also started to take pro-active action to address the situation in a number of ways; by focussing on software capability of the supplier in the supplier evaluation process; making provision for contractual demands with respect to software quality: and in performing supplier software capability assessments both before and during contract performance.
Whilst the immediate short-term benefits are clear for the motor vehicle manufacturer, without commonality of approach, suppliers face multiple assessments from multiple manufacturers using different models and consuming resources that put additional pressure on delivery times.
The Automotive SPICE™ initiative includes the following car manufacturers : AUDI AG, BMW Group, DaimlerChrysler AG, Fiat Auto S.p.A., Ford Werke GmbH, Jaguar, Land Rover, Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, Volkswagen AG and Volvo Car Corporation.
This event is organised by the SPICE User Group and The Procurement Forum on behalf of the Automotive SPICE™ initiative and supported by gasq - Global Association for Software Quality.
More information on Automotive SPICE™ can be found at www.automotivespice.com or www.gasq.org.
Automotive SPICE™ will be formally launched at a special event to be held on the 25 April 2006 at the Munich IHK (Chamber of Commerce), Germany. The motor vehicle manufacturers will be present at the event to convey their official policy and approach towards supplier capability assessments.
Today, more than 85% of the functionality in the modern motor vehicle is controlled by software. As project schedules get even shorter, the pressure on software development and target hardware costs get ever greater, and the potential recall and safety issues due to electronic systems malfunction becomes ever more calculable.
Both the motor vehicle manufacturer and the supplier need to take action to address these issues. Suppliers have not been slow to take action. Many forward looking companies are already utilising process assessment techniques as a basis for identifying areas for improvement both to meet their business needs and the demands of their customers.
The motor vehicle manufacturers have also started to take pro-active action to address the situation in a number of ways; by focussing on software capability of the supplier in the supplier evaluation process; making provision for contractual demands with respect to software quality: and in performing supplier software capability assessments both before and during contract performance.
Whilst the immediate short-term benefits are clear for the motor vehicle manufacturer, without commonality of approach, suppliers face multiple assessments from multiple manufacturers using different models and consuming resources that put additional pressure on delivery times.
The Automotive SPICE™ initiative includes the following car manufacturers : AUDI AG, BMW Group, DaimlerChrysler AG, Fiat Auto S.p.A., Ford Werke GmbH, Jaguar, Land Rover, Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, Volkswagen AG and Volvo Car Corporation.
This event is organised by the SPICE User Group and The Procurement Forum on behalf of the Automotive SPICE™ initiative and supported by gasq - Global Association for Software Quality.
More information on Automotive SPICE™ can be found at www.automotivespice.com or www.gasq.org.
