Norman Hanke joined AUCOTEC in 2010 as a product designer. He is now not only head of the Operations Management team, but is also responsible for most of the business-critical processes within AUCOTEC – from ERP and CRM to the service systems and internal tools. This development began when Mr Hanke took on additional tasks as quality manager in 2016. Since then he has been in charge of the ISO 9001 certification and is already planning the audit for the next quality standard.
When did AUCOTEC start working on ISO certification and what has been the result?
AUCOTEC started to conduct a pre-audit for ISO 9001:2015 in 2016. According to TÜV-Nord, this approach is exceptionally positive, since most companies do not put this extra investment in a good quality system. In February 2017, actual certification was achieved. In February 2020, the first re-certification took place and this was also successful.
How does AUCOTEC ensure consistent quality?
Our goal is to support the processes in the company sustainably in line with the management system introduced. This includes appropriate and risk-related measures, but also regular monitoring of their effectiveness, as we aim for continuous improvement.
In order to verify that processes achieve their specified results, we have defined suitable KPIs (key performance indicators), which we evaluate periodically in order to readjust the processes if necessary.
What measures were taken for this purpose and with what goal?
We have set up a dedicated team (Operations Management) to take care of internal processes outside the actual ISO 9001 certification. This team works very closely with Quality Management.
Since it was set up in 2016, the team has implemented more than 800 process requirements and today five colleagues work for Operations Management full-time and three on a temporary basis.
Does certification also increase the efficiency of AUCOTEC's customers?
No, not at first; passing your driving test, for example, only means that you are basically qualified to drive a car and says nothing about the quality of your driving. But certification does say something about systematic approaches and thinking in terms of transparent processes, which can certainly have an impact on efficiency within the company itself. Of course, customers also benefit from this.
However, we primarily achieve an increase in efficiency from the interaction with Operations Management. This team continuously implements process improvements, introduces new tools, etc. and this also makes our customers more efficient directly (such as by standardized product downloads) or indirectly (for example, a company can better react to market demands through business intelligence statistics).
Are there currently any other important certifications at AUCOTEC?
Yes. At the end of 2023, we successfully passed audit level 2 of the ISO 27001 certification by TÜV Nord CERT. This is a very important milestone in our efforts to continuously guarantee the highest standards in information security and data protection. Furthermore, many customers increasingly expect this certificate.
ISO 27001 is considered the "premier class" of internationally recognized standards and is one of the most complex of its kind. After all, only around 1,600 valid certificates have currently been issued in Germany. The fact that a company of our size has this "driver's license" is quite extraordinary. We are very proud of this!
