”For our customers we figure out, how fast and competent an authorized repair shop detects and repairs a defect“, says Dr. Franz-Marc Boas. To optimize diagnostic processes the P3 consultant is authorized to officially construct errors – or better put: integrate them. Porous hoses, fragile cables or faulty seals are prepared by every trick in the concealment book.

“We manipulate guarantee and accommodation damages, to find out, how effective the on- and off-board diagnosis works in the field. Because it’s about a lot of money for the manufacturers!” This “hidden” benchmark is usually realized with five OEMs. The customer is able to get an idea of the competition.

To systematically lower guarantee and accommodation costs, Boas also evaluates enormous amounts of diagnosis data. “Because of the data being available on a central server within 48 hours, at about 70 percent of all diagnostic sessions, we realize developments in the field very fast and are able to react.” During analysis, error code patterns evolve, which precisely depict the frequency and severity code of errors.

Is there a high number of certain defects, the P3 team relay the warning to the developers – in the worst case a component has to be changed in a short time. In the long run those data are the basis for a reorganization of testing concepts. If e.g. a new engine is built, the error caches for the more than 50 control devices, which are running in a normal car nowadays, also have to be rebuilt.

“We break whole new ground in the product probation”, says Franz-Marc Boas. P3 has developed a diagnosis formation process and reorganized the procedures in cooperation with the customers. Part of it was the introduction of diagnostic requirement specifications, intensive trials and systematic clearances. “Five years ago there wasn’t anything like that!”