Complaint management using the extended 8D-method along the automotive supply chain

The integration of suppliers and customers into the supply chain is a constant objective for companies in a network of production resources, especially in the automotive industry. Complaints of OEMs and suppliers in this field of business must be processed with high urgency and precision by the complaint management. To allow an efficient flow of information, a method and a software prototype have been developed to work on complaints along the supply chain. The extended 8D-method can be applied to an unlimited number of customer-supplier-relations along the supply chain. A web service provides the data transport, implementing parts of the data model QDX, which is about to form a standard for the exchange of quality related information in the automotive industry of Germany. The applied methods and concepts are described in this paper. FIBER was funded by the German Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and supervised by the Federation for Quality, Research and Science (FQS) in Germany. The project was supported by two Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) of the German automotive industry and several suppliers.