QM Association: A model for Europe

Five years of joint commitment to quality in vehicle monitoring

The Association for Quality Management is celebrating its first small anniversary: the Berlin-based association is now five years old. What began as an initiative by German monitoring institutions has become an established institution in vehicle monitoring.

With its members, the association represents around 90 percent of the German vehicle inspection market. It has developed uniform standards and systems according to which the quality audits of vehicle inspections are carried out, recorded, evaluated and controlled. The work of 280 auditors is coordinated nationwide via a regional structure with eight areas. More than 30,000 quality controls have been carried out since then. Having started with the aim of significantly and sustainably improving the quality of general inspections in Germany, the association can already point to a success story. This is because the improvement in quality can be proven in facts and figures.

Viktor Kretzschmann, Head of the Berlin office: ‘Since the quality initiative began in 2008, all quality indicators have shown continuous improvement. Regular evaluations provide monitoring organisations and supervisory authorities, for example, with nationwide transparency on developments and concrete results for the first time, which is an important basis for evaluating and aligning their quality work.’

Against the backdrop of the upcoming harmonisation of vehicle monitoring in Europe, the work of the QM Association is also attracting considerable interest from abroad. ‘In the long term, EU harmonisation primarily means the introduction of uniform quality standards. Many of the European monitoring systems are facing similar challenges to those we have already mastered in Germany,’ says Dr. Neumann, Chairman of the Board. ‘This is where the association can contribute its experience and serve as a role model at European level.’

The Association for Quality Management also feels vindicated by the latest important decision taken by the Federal-State Technical Committee on Motor Vehicles to further develop the proven neutral system of vehicle monitoring in Germany. ‘The fact that the attempt by individuals to abolish the consumer-friendly separation of repairs and inspections was clearly rejected is also attributable to our contribution to an efficient quality assurance process and thus to a high level of road safety,’ Kretzschmann is certain. ‘The German vehicle inspection system has been enhanced by our standardised and competition-neutral quality controls.’