No certificate, no order
KOHLHAGE Automotive Tubes (Kunshan) is now also IATF 16949 certified.
In Europe, and especially in Germany, it has long been part of the daily routine of every automotive supplier: certification according to IATF 16949. KOHLHAGE Automotive has been certified for years. KOHLHAGE Automotive Tubes (Kunshan) has now followed suit.
“For a long time now, we have been asked by customers in the Chinese market whether we are certified,” says Sven Wohlgemuth, Managing Director at KOHLHAGE Automotive Tubes Kunshan. “KOHLHAGE Automotive has been for years and now we are too,” he says happily. “Certification in itself is a tour de force for any company, especially during the preparation period. Every process is looked at, possibly optimised and then documented. This can be a challenge for employees who have worked in a certain direction for ten years or more. Even if a lot of paper is used in the certification process until the quality manual is ready, in the end everyone benefits from it.
I’ll give you an example: in the past, when a customer enquired, the sales department would often say, “No problem at all.” The technicians in production thought, “We can probably get it done.” And the QA department said, “Are you insane to promise the customer such tolerances?”
Today, through neatly defined processes that were defined as part of the IATF certification, we have the possibility to link ALL departments necessary in the project into one unit and to ask relevant questions beforehand. This is how we achieve viable solutions with consistent quality,” says Wohlgemuth and adds: “The fact that we are recertified once a year is our incentive to also maintain the KOHLHAGE quality standard we have achieved – or to become even better.”
