Responsibilities of Homologation group 1

In the three companies I have worked for the homologation group specifies what legal standards have to be met by the parts. They do not test the parts or check them, that is the responsibility of the design, test and QA people.



Cheers

Greg Locock

The responability of the supplier is to present for his delivered parts the homologation certificate accoring to the EU Regulation regarding that specific part. And you shouldn't test it. Now here comes the "dancing and music part":

If you are homologating a new vehicle,you have to present at the homologation of the vehicle all the homologation certificates of every subsystem, and also you have to demonstrate that all the homologated parts work together as it is required in the EU Directives and Regulations. To make it clear I give you an example:

We made a trolleybus. The steering subsystem, with the steering pumps was made by ZF, absolutely according to EU Regulations, the traction electrical motor was made by UMEB, the air compressor system for doors and suspension by Ganz Air, all homolgated, and all these together went over the max. noise level of the trolleybus specified by the Regulations. So we had to figure out what to do, because everybody was fully covered with homologation papers and the vehicle still didn't comply with the EU Regulation for noise level. In such cases you should know from where to take the problem. We have good engineers, and they managed to reduce the noise level, and we went to homologation again.

I also agree that you can meet this kind of working style only at fairly little companies, not at big companies, where you have every departement very clearly stated.

Aside from the homologation rules and tests. Assuing that we accept the standars of a specific company e.g. Citroen for the parts that we buy from other companies. DO we have to test them again to check their conformity ourselves or they (part manufacturers) test it themselves and we just accept what they say.....

In theory if they are a trusted supplier, which is a formal process where I work, then you can accept their test results.

You obviously need to work on SQA before that can happen.

Otherwise you should retest the parts.

If Citroen are a trusted supplier to you then you should, I think, be able to trust their assessment of their suppliers.



Cheers

Greg Locock

According to the law, if they present a homologation paper for that part (their supplied part) where it is stated that the part is complying with the Regulation No.... (This homologation paper is issued by an other certified testing institute like TÜV, or French Automotive Authorithy or such kind of organisation, where nobody can cheat) and if this part fails in operation, where you can prove that those operation conditions where the failure appeared were normal operation conditions, thus meaning that they delivered a nonconform part, so they are liable to pay for the damages, but you dont't have to retest the homologated supplied parts compulsory, only if you have some doubts. As ISO itself has its basis on confidence in the quality assurance system of your partner.
Well, if your company have an internal standard, stating that all supplied parts (no exeption)or some percent of every delivery will be retested as a plus safety net for assuring quality, then you should retest it, but certainly there is some loss of time and money.