Due to Japanese innovations in electronic calculators, the company’s future and that of its then 360 employees appeared in jeopardy. This was to represent the basis for an impending reorganization. To this day, the employees at this Belgian company are specialists in the area of mechanics, but the company’s business focus has changed dramatically. Continental Teves GmbH & Co. KG manufactures singular components for highly complex anti-block brake systems in the automotive industry. What began in the 1980s with the manufacturing of individual valves, valve blocks, and sensors for the so-called ABS system has continued to develop over the years into the manufacturing of complete systems.
If one enters the production areas of the company, taken over by Continental AG in 1998, one hears highly technical acronyms everywhere. Although the acronyms ABS, ASR, and ESP are familiar to most knowledgeable automobile drivers today, at Continental the terms ACC, AYC, EBD, EMB, ECU, or TCS are just as commonly used. This gives the impression that developments which have created these systems, such as the electro-mechanical brake (EMB), or the system used for traction control (TCS) already belong to the serial production standard of a common automobile.
In fact, these strange sounding acronyms, most likely unfamiliar to the layperson, are indeed part of everyday production at Continental. As one of the largest manufacturers of ABS-systems, with a market share of ca. 45%, and 400 km off from its Frankfurt headquarters, the company develops and produces 85 million valves for the automotive industry. This means that, at 10 valves for ABS and ESP per automobile, Continental produces components for 8.5 million automobiles in Europe per year. It is a matter of course for Continental that, in order to reach such high production quantities – which are impressive even in the area of complete manufacturing of ESP and ABS-systems – an almost entirely automated manufacturing process is needed. In 1999 the company celebrated the production of the 150th million component, manufactured in the preceding 15 years, but only two years later valve production had increased to a total of 100 million more.
The basis for such an impressive production achievement includes, beyond custom development of highly specialized and custom-made production machines, the keeping to strict quality standards. “In the automotive industry there is no tolerance level for imperfection”, the supervisor for quality technology, Bart Ceulemans, explains. “If we do not work 100% error-free our products would constitute a risk to a car drivers’ wellbeing. No one in our line of work would be willing to take a chance on something that important.
But since making errors is only human, Continental depends on precise computer technology. Since 1994, the company uses the superior abilities and high performance of CAQ AG Factory Systems in Rheinböllen. Quality expert Ceulemans, who is, after many years, still the person in charge of software for quality assurance, originally recommended using CAQ AG’s software.
“CAQ AG Factory Systems, or better yet, its CEO Hans-Jörg Brück, was someone we already knew. Mr. Brück, as a representative for CAQ AG, had already developed custom software for us based on the then common dBase system. Our company was called ITT Teves or ITT Automotive in those days. This software never gave us any reason to criticize CAQ AG. Therefore, it was only natural to continue placing new orders into the hands of a tried and trusted partner.”
According to Mr. Ceulemans, his company never regretted doing business with CAQ AG Factory Systems. The CAQ software was custom developed to meet the special demands of this Belgian production company. During the development phase, Continental was able to voice software program preferences and desires which were incorporated eventually into the programming of the final version of the software CAQ-Compact.Net®.
The performance of the software is convincing: “We know, that the software system can do even more, but with the licenses which we have required so far, including the expansion software modules, our production is able to achieve the highest possible degree of quality.” Even though Continental utilizes a relatively small number of licenses of the base module CAQ-Compact.Net®, the company is always ready to read and control its acquired data since licensing agreements only refer to simultaneous system access and not, as is the case for most other software vendors, to number of installations. To this extend, it is possible to control and retain strict quality requirements at over 30 workstations with the support of the quality assurance system.
In order to adjust the software’s capabilities to perfectly fit the demands of the Belgian company the complementary modules for gauge management PMM.Net®, failure modes and effects analysis FMEA.Net®, as well as the form generator Form.Net® were integrated into the overall system. The possibilities of FMEA.Net® impressed the customers of the brake manufacturing company the most. With a custom-developed Supply Chain Management System by CAQ AG Factory Systems, Continental is able to furnish each of its customers with an appropriate APQP/PPAP report which lists the errors in an entire production batch without the need for any paper.
So far the library of FMEA-reports encompasses over 200 individual errors. Continental is confident that this number will only go up in the years to come. Both companies, in Mechelen and Rheinböllen, are convinced that this goal can only be reached with the help of CAQ AG Factory Systems software.
Renowned customers especially demanding in the area of quality and environmental management describe their success stories and serve as guarantors and references for software that yields high performance and is reliable and fair.
From mid-size companies to multi-national corporations, CAQ AG develops innovative, integrated software solutions that satisfy the highest demands and meet all requirements of quality management.
Furthermore, CAQ AG software supports all quality-related processes pertaining to any value added chain, production companies, and service providers. We attach special importance to compliance with standards as well as 100% release-capability of all of our software solutions without any restrictions – all this while retaining the maximum degree of customization to satisfy customer-specific demands.
Although CAQ AG software solutions are installed on thousands of systems worldwide, we guarantee that you can update your version automatically, no matter how many updates and upgrades you have installed previously. All upgrades function with minimum servicing time and effort onsite. Updates install automatically without requiring you to consult or involve our service staff. Updates neither change nor impede any customer-specific configurations. This principle ensures the full value of your investments.
In all of our efforts our most important goal is not just to satisfy you, but instead to thrill you! One thing is essential to realizing this goal – and we are very proud of our accomplishments on this front: We have a highly motivated, engaged, and competent team in which and with which working is fun!
It is a matter of course for us here at CAQ AG that our employees in development, support, customer service, sales, and management, in addition to having university degrees as well as practical experience, have completed the training courses for “Quality Manager GFQ-IHK” or “Quality Assistant GFQ-IHK” and stay up-to-date by continuously completing training programs.
