The quality of our products and services plays a key role in maintaining customer satisfaction. Customers are satisfied and loyal particularly when their expectations of a product or service are met or even exceeded. Appeal, reliability and service determine quality as it is perceived by the customer throughout the entire product experience. Our objective is to positively surprise our customers and inspire enthusiasm in all areas, and thus to win them over with our quality.
Digitalization was once again the beating heart of our work in the past fiscal year: we are continuously sharpening our focus on software-based system development, which is a critical factor for success in respect of customer satisfaction. Consistent application of the “Automotive SPICE” process assessment model that we use to improve our processes is particularly important in our activities. It is a key building block for meeting the requirements of our customers, as well as those of the regulatory and legislative bodies.
Volkswagen has been implementing cybersecurity measures across the Company for some time now. For example, we have an independent cybersecurity network in place across all regions and Group brands and monitor potential cyber risks. This enables us to act fast when potential threats arise. Since June 2022, the UNECE (United Nations Economic Commission for Europe) has provided for corresponding certification and homologation to ensure that companies can guarantee that these aspects are dealt with properly so as to protect the users of our vehicles from potential attacks. Our Group pursues the goal of implementing standards in the areas of both accident prevention and security. We are continuously refining the established processes within the framework of an Automotive Cyber Security Management System in keeping with the requirements of the UNECE regulation. In this context, Volkswagen is implementing comprehensive measures across departments throughout the Group.
We review our functional area strategy New Quality periodically and coordinate it with the brands. We align our activities with our goal expressed in the new motto: “We strive for outstanding products, services and customer satisfaction.” The NEW AUTO Group strategy sets new parameters for transforming the Group into a software-oriented mobility provider. Based on this, our quality strategy focuses primarily on achieving maximum levels of customer satisfaction throughout the entire customer experience – from ordering through to the digital ecosystem and up to the product as well as aftersales and customer service. Group Quality and the brands’ quality organizations play an active role at all stages of product emergence and testing, making an important contribution to successful product launches, high customer satisfaction and low warranty and ex gratia repair costs. We have defined “warranty and ex gratia repair payments per vehicle after 12 months in service” as a strategic indicator at the top level of consideration for the major passenger car-producing brands. This shows all warranty and ex gratia repair payments for the vehicles produced worldwide in each production year, expressed in euros per vehicle. All vehicles from the Volkswagen Passenger Cars, Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, Škoda, SEAT/CUPRA, Audi and Porsche brands are included in this figure. Extraordinary items resulting from initiatives such as recalls to assure product safety or comply with laws are not taken into account. While the figures starting from the 2017 production year remained at a constant low level, they have increased since the 2020 production year due to the growing use of new technologies in the vehicle and rising complexity. Actions were taken to reduce these figures and have proven effective.
The legal and regulatory compliance of our products is paramount in our work. In our processes we employ the principle of multiple-party verification, which involves mutual support and control between the business units. Among other things, software development is accompanied by quality milestones at all brands. This principle applies to all systems, components and parts that directly influence a vehicle’s safety, type approval and functioning and therefore require particular vigilance. At the series production stage, we see to it that the conformity checks on our products are carried out and assessed with the participation of all business units involved. This applies particularly to checks related to emissions and fuel consumption.
We are also dedicating attention to our quality management system, reinforcing the interdisciplinary, process-driven approach throughout the Group. The quality management system in the Volkswagen Group is based on the ISO 9001 standard and the official type approval requirements. These standards and requirements must be complied with for us to obtain type approval for the manufacture and sale of our vehicles. We conducted numerous system audits in the reporting year to verify that our sites and brands continue to comply with these requirements. Particular focus was placed on assessing the risk of non-compliance with defined processes. Our quality management consultants pay attention to ensuring that these and other new requirements, as well as official regulations, are implemented and complied with; they are coordinated and supported in this endeavor by a central office in Group Quality.
We use a variety of feedback instruments, such as specific customer surveys, to collect information on region-specific customer requirements. In addition, we monitor relevant internet forums and social media postings worldwide to obtain direct customer feedback and identify sentiment and trends at an early stage.
In order to be able to make the perceived quality of our vehicles commensurate with that of our competitors, we take the needs of our regional customers into account in our vehicle audits. Every brand works together with the individual regions to decide how its product is to be positioned there. In this way, we strengthen the brands’ responsibility. Consistent quality benchmarks apply across all brands and regions to ensure that we obtain comparable results from the vehicle audit. We are continually adapting these in line with changing requirements. For more than 40 years now, we have been deploying auditors around the world to assess, from the customer’s perspective, the vehicles that are ready for delivery and to ensure that these vehicles comply with the benchmarks defined.