zivanovic.org

IATF 16949 | ISO 9001 | VDA 6.3

I entered the automotive industry in 2015, joining Mei Ta Europe, a member of the Mei Ta Group, Taiwanese multinational corporation headquartered in Taoyuan, Taiwan, with major manufacturing operations in China, India, Mexico, and Serbia. Mei Ta Group provides comprehensive casting and machining solutions for high-temperature-resistant iron and steel components. Our facility in Serbia focuses on the casting and machining of steel components, including turbine housings, integrated manifolds, and exhaust manifolds for petrol and diesel engines.

I began my career as assistant to the CEO, facilitating communication between top management and municipal authorities before and during the factory construction phase. In 2016, I transitioned into quality assurance, completing training as a quality assurance specialist at the Mei Ta Group’s main production facility, Tianjin New Wei San Industrial Co. Ltd. in China.

From 2016 to 2019, I worked as a Quality Engineer in the Quality Assurance Department, conducting internal audits in accordance with IATF 16949, ISO 9001, ISO 14001, and ISO 45001 standards, as well as VDA 6.3 process audits, VDA 6.5 product audits, CQI-15 welding system assessments, and CQI-27 casting system assessments. In this role, I also performed QMS and VDA 6.3 audits at supplier locations across Europe and ensured the effective implementation of customer-specific requirements within Mei Ta Europe and across the supplier network.

In 2019, I was promoted to Deputy Manager, and in 2021 to Manager of the Quality Assurance Department. In my current role, I am responsible for the effective implementation and continual improvement of the company’s integrated management system, establishing annual audit programmes, leading internal and supplier audit teams, managing customer complaint resolution and ensuring customer satisfaction throughout the supply chain, overseeing the metrology team, monitoring sub-supplier performance and quality objectives, managing departmental budgeting and job descriptions, holding internal training sessions, tracking employee performance and departmental KPI achievement.

Some of the improvements made to the integrated management system (as much as could be said about it while maintaining confidentiality):

• Establishing system for transversal deployment (read-across) of corrective actions, to prevent recurrence of complaints on similar/applicable projects, and reduce claim costs
• Establishing system for product verification audits, to increase focus on customer interfaces ans special characteristics
• Optimising calibration work sequence and calibration frequencies
• Optimising quality and EHS management systems manuals by unifying into single documents for easier tracking, training and updating.
• Proposing design of various special gauges to reduce operator workload or simplify the decision-making process

If you want to your team more about standard requirements and core quality tools, and their practical implementation, if you need to develop the documentation to support your quality management system, or an impartial auditor to review your processes for opportunities for improvement, this is the right place to start.