The Automotive Quality Institute GmbH (AQI) is affiliated with the German automotive association VDA and the Technical University of Berlin.

As a limited liability company, the AQI is financially independent and thus free to pursue both applied and pure research projects at its own discretion. Its association with the VDA and its Quality Management Center QMC provides an expansive network of experts in the automotive industry.

Team

Arnd Schaarschmidt | Managing director

  • German diploma in industrial engineering 
  • Previously: Head of Quality Assurance at the Volkswagen Group 
  • Head of Quality Assurance at Smart Quality
    (software quality, car security, and QA work for digital services and new business models)

Dr. Björn Schünemann | Project manager

  • German diploma in computer science, Dissertation about connected driving
  • Previously: Team leader at DCAITI and Fraunhofer FOKUS 
  • Focus: Connected and automated driving, electromobility

Gunnar Harde | Project manager

  • German diploma in physics 
  • Previously: IT consultant and project manager at the QA department of Volkswagen AG
  • Focus: Automotive cyber-security, agile development

Serge Elia | Project manager

  • German diploma in computer science
  • before head of BI-Strategy, Development and -Systems
  • Focus: Business intelligence, data warehousing/big data, data science, artificial intelligence

Bann Ayoub Project Manager

  • Bachelor's and Master's degrees in industrial engineering
  • before student trainee at IAV Automotive Engineering GmbH

Project assistant & financial controller

  • Bachelor's degree in business administration 
  • Previously: Event & project manager at Mivento agency
  • Focus: Controlling, back office

Ideals and Values

For us, quality management means creating real added value for our customers and for the end customers of the automotive industry. We focus on developing necessary and meaningful measures to provide quality products and services to the automotive industry's consumers. Quality standards are not an end in themselves – they need to serve the purpose of improving and maintaining product quality and so must be instituted rationally and proportionately.

The products of the automotive industry are more than just vehicles to us. We regard the automotive industry as the industry of mobility, with all the challenging new aspects it implies. Our ambition is to question conventions and find new approaches and solutions. It is important to us that a dialog take place – with scientific development furnishing ideas and the automotive industry delivering practical implementations.

For the sake of our customers and ourselves, we remain committed to the following values:

  • Openness: We make our methods and results transparent and easy to understand.
  • Focus: We concentrate on the decisive issues. 
  • Courage: We address open issues and work toward their prompt resolution.
  • Respect: We regard contrary opinions as opportunities to gain new insight. 
  • Commitment: We make statements and promises clearly and stand by them.