MLA - Maturity Level Assurance

Increasing product complexity and greater competition, combined with the higher quality demands of end-users and rising warranty and goodwill costs have an ever-greater influence on the cooperation between automobile manufacturers and the supply industry. Recently, the integration of mechatronic parts and software (scope of supply) into vehicles has further increased the need for ever-closer collaboration.

This cooperation is characterized by the intensive interactions involved in the product development process (product and process development up to the start of series production). Activities within the scope of quality assurance are therefore primarily focused on assessing project maturity in order to ensure lasting and robust series-production quality.

The MLA milestone model focuses on a comprehensive and consistent presentation of maturity levels within the framework of progress in a project covering new parts, combined with an assessment of the maturity of the product and manufacturing process at agreed times within the product development process.

The methodology for assessing project maturity based on quantifiable characteristics (maturity level measurement criteria) represents an extension of previous advance quality planning methods and can be integrated in the basic requirements (e.g. IATF 16949) and methods already published (e.g. APQP, PPA , Project management).

The maturity level assurance method can be applied both in internal customer-supplier relationships (within an organization, e.g. groups of companies) and in external customer-supplier relationships (between an organization and its customer or between the organization and its supplier). A significant element is therefore the rules covering cooperation at all stages in the supply chain, with the integration of all those involved in the project. To this end, important customer-supplier relationships are defined within the framework of milestone assessments in projects (new projects, face-lifts or other modification projects initiated by the customer), a concrete cooperation model in the project is described and thus the early, cross-functional integration of all those involved is assured.

TRAINING CONTENT/AGENDA

• Product development process – project milestones and sample stages
• Product development process – maturity levels
• Relationship cascade in the supply chain
• Questions for suppliers (and customers)
• Four factors that influence the risk
• The risk class determines the intensity of further communication
• Customer and supplier at the round table
• How risks impact the supply chain
• Dealing properly with risks in the supply chain
• Sample classes in the product development process
• Assignment of the sample classes to maturity levels
• Which indicators for which maturity level?
• Maturity level – measurement criteria
• Indicators and repeat questions
• Select criteria specific to product/process
• The maturity levels in the course of the project – step by step to MLA
• Arrange deadlines
• Evaluate the measurement criteria
• What the MLA traffic light colors mean
• How the overall assessment is created
• “Traffic Light Pyramid” in the course of the project
• What to report to whom?
• Escalate and correct
• Software maturity level meetings
• Timing of hardware, software and mechanics
• Changes to the VDA volume
• Knowledge Test