3030 Auditorium 01/04 - DEKRA Certification

COVER STORY
Successful repeat
As speaker Prof. Dr.-Ing. Gerhard Zeidler
pointed out in the official explanatory
statement at the presentation ceremony,
“In the cross-industry comparison for
the DEKRA Award both winners produced
outstanding results.” The jury,
according to the DEKRA chairman,
was equally impressed by their successes
– by the exemplary implementation
of the police authority’s management
system and by Zollner’s achievements
in continuously improving their processes
in an adverse environment. “We
all know what it means today to be an
automotive supplier.”
The jurors also knew the importance
that should be attached to the latest improvements
of the electronics company.
Zollner Elektronik – then a 120-man
automotive team – already won first
place in the DEKRA Award 2000. This
time, after the prescribed interval of
three years, three plants with a total of
2200 employees went to the starting
line. The result: excellent marks in all
five criteria, taking them to first place.
Two DEKRA Award 2003 winners
In 2003 the international DEKRA Award for management quality goes to Zollner
Elektronik AG of Zandt (Bavaria) and the Police Headquarters at Lubuska in western
Poland. For the first time in its five-year history the coveted prize is being awarded to
two organisations simultaneously. A total of twelve candidates reached the final round
and over 300 visitors attended the presentation ceremony.
First winner from Poland
The surprise of the evening followed
hard on the heels of this success story. In
the eyes of the jury, what was probably
the most exotic finalist was on level
pegging with the Bavarian company:
the District Headquarters of the Polish
Police at Lubuska. The guardians of the
law had likewise satisfied all the criteria
with flying colours and were at the
forefront, particularly when it came to
“leadership and strategy”. As a consequence,
the DEKRA Award 2003 finally
had two first place candidates, and –
also a first – one of them was from
outside Germany (see profile on page 7).
The success of the three Polish finalists
was rounded off by a third place taken
by the trucking company Paul Klacska
Polska Sp.z o.o. By the name of Talis
Polska Sp.z o.o it had already advanced
to the final round of the DEKRA Award
last year. This time, following a further
substantial improvement in the quality
level, the company finally made it onto
the stage. According to Prof. Dr.-Ing.
Gerhard Zeidler, the entire field was to
be congratulated on its achievements.
Ethics of success,
according to Kant
The DEKRA Entrepreneurs’ Forum,
this year devoted to the theme “Ethics
and success”, was once again the festive
setting for the awards ceremony at the
Ludwigsburg Forum am Schlosspark.
And no theme or timing could have
been more appropriate in the Kant Year
2004. On 31 March, between the 200th
anniversary of the death of the Koenigsberg
philosopher on 12 February and
his 280th birthday on 22 April, the
speakers grappled with the question of
entrepreneurial and social responsibility.
Time and again, Immanuel Kant’s
famous categorical imperative formed
an important point of reference. In his
welcoming address Prof. Dr.-Ing. Gerhard
Zeidler quoted Kant’s words, “Act as if
the maxim from which you act were to
become through your will a universal
law,” and expressed it in the form of a
well-known proverb: “Do unto others
as you would they should do unto you.”
In the corporate environment it is important
to implement these basic paradigms
as binding principles in order to
check the decline of values.
Continued on page 5
Josef Schmidt Dr. Dr. Cay von Fournier Wolf R. Hirschmann Hans-Joachim Schneider Franz-Josef Fischer Anuschirawan Adel Stephan Baus