ZF Excellently Achieves IRIS Certification

on 21 April 2009




In mid-February 2009, the special driveline technology business unit of ZF Friedrichshafen passed certification according to the new International Railway Industry Standard (IRIS). Thus, the manufacturer of drive components for rail vehicles continues to live up to the basic requirements established for delivery orders granted by international manufacturers. With its own standard, the rail vehicle industry aims at generating a higher level of process quality along the entire supply chain.



Rail vehicle manufacturers issue special requirements for their suppliers: As a result of the high investment amounts for the rail business, the product lifecycle of up to 30 years is considerably greater than in comparable industry sectors. Moreover, project times are much longer. As a consequence, industry-specific standards for processes and retraceability throughout the supply chain became necessary.



To date, the highly general guidelines provided through industry standards such as ISO 9001 have not really provided a lot of support to rail vehicle manufacturers when it came to selecting suppliers. Therefore, upon an initiative launched by the four major system suppliers - AnsaldoBreda, Alstom, Bombardier and Siemens - the Union of European Railway Industries, or Union des Industries Ferroviaires Européennes (UNIFE) created its own, industry-specific standard, focusing on project management and securing quality throughout the entire product lifecycle.


In February 2009, the ZF special driveline technology business unit - as a manufacturer of rail vehicle drive components –passed certification in accordance with IRIS and is now listed on the supplier database.


Dr Thomas Hegel, director of the ZF special driveline technology business unit, said: "For us, certification is a compulsory exercise which we smoothly and successfully passed. Many of the directives now anchored in the new standard had already been established at our premises."
Since the end of 2006, companies have been able to apply for certification audits in accordance with the new industry standard. In the course of the coming months, IRIS will successfully establish itself throughout the rail vehicle industry: Major international rail vehicle manufacturers, such as the most important European rail vehicle operators, Deutsche Bahn, SNCF and RATP (France), will, from the end of 2009, only accept suppliers with an IRIS certificate. By March 2009, 200 IRIS certificates had already been granted worldwide.