Product Audit as a continuous improvement instrument for Perceived Quality on vehicles at Automobili Lamborghini SpA

The following thesis is about product Audit and its involvement in the continuous improvement processes of Automobili Lamborghini products. The first task will be to contextualize the company by describing its history, analysing main phases and management changes which have characterized it. Then, company’s actual product offer, its competitors and its targeted customers will be studied, with a particular focus about the tough segment in which Automobili Lamborghini works: super-sport cars and super-SUV. After, Quality will be defined, described and analysed in all its facets, starting from the beginning, up to present days. The following task will be to understand what is vehicle Audit and why it is generally seen as an important instrument for evaluating level of quality perceived by customers, especially explaining its central role in Volkswagen Group. Therefore, it will be described how product Audit is organized in Automobili Lamborghini and how it relates with other departments such as Production, Research & Development, Supplier Quality and many others. In particular, it will be discussed the method used in order to assess the Quality Level of vehicles produced by the company, with a particular attention about defects classification and investigation. Moreover, it will be exposed in detail the whole process that must be followed in order to perform a product Audit session, starting from the dynamic and static inspection of the vehicle till the filling of the Quality Class report. Furthermore, monitoring instruments, which are daily used by Audit team, will be described and their functions will be analysed. It will be also clarified the role of Audit as continuous improvement instrument for those models already in production phase. After, it will be described the method for analysing and monitoring continuous improvement methodologies based on Defect modules. Finally, it will be defined the importance of Audit in phases preceding SOP (Start of Production) and how it is seen as an improvement instrument which guarantees conformity of production and high quality perceived.