Integrating Functional Safety, Automotive SPICE and Six Sigma - The AQUA Knowledge Base and Integration Examples

AQUA stands for Knowledge Alliance for Training Quality and Excellence in Automotive. The AQUA project is financially supported by the European Commission in the Leonardo da Vinci part of the Lifelong Learning Programme under the project number EAC-2012-0635. This paper extends the EuroSPI 2013 publication [4] which discussed (based on the EU project AQUA) how the core elements of three complementary approaches (Automotive SPICE, Functional safety, Six Sigma) and standards can be integrated into one compact skill set with training and best practices to be applied. In this paper we describe the modular knowledge base which was elaborated and highlight some aspects where the integrated use of all three methods can be demonstrated. The results of the project are disseminated to Automotive industry in partnership with a set of European Automotive associations.