Use Case: Digital Material Sampling with the Volkswagen Group
Image source: Volkswagen
With the Volkswagen Group, material.one has gained an important new client for digital material sampling. This project demonstrates how digital approval and documentation management can be supported in a structured, scalable, and audit-proof manner within large, complex supply networks.
Initial Situation: Material Sampling in Large Supply Networks
Material sampling is a key component of the production process and product approval. It ensures that materials, components, and related test reports meet the defined requirements before they are incorporated into mass production.
In large automotive supply networks, this process is particularly challenging. Manufacturers, suppliers, subcontractors, and laboratories must coordinate requirements, test plans, test results, documentation, and approval statuses across various organizations and systems. The larger the network, the more important clear data structures, standardized processes, and reliable traceability become.
This is exactly where material.one comes in: The platform supports digital approval and documentation management for material sampling processes and integrates requirements, test planning, laboratory processes, and documentation into a structured digital workspace.
The Use Case: Standardized Digital Sampling at the Volkswagen Group
As part of this collaboration, material.one will be used for digital material sampling within the Volkswagen Group. The goal is to further standardize PPF/PPAP processes, reduce manual effort, and provide suppliers with clearer support in handling their sampling tasks.
The platform enables the structured submission of requirements, the digital processing of test plans, the integration of relevant test and verification data, and the audit-proof documentation of approvals.
This creates a transparent digital workspace for suppliers to manage approvals and documentation. Relevant information, tasks, and documentation become more centrally accessible, easier to assign, and more traceable. At the same time, manufacturers gain a better overview of the status, quality, and completeness of the submitted sample information.
Why Digital Approval and Documentation Management Is Critical
In traditional sampling processes, the greatest effort is often not due solely to the technical testing, but rather to the coordination of requirements, documentation, and approvals: Which requirements apply? What documentation is needed? What information is missing? Which version is current? What feedback is still pending?
When these issues have to be resolved via email, spreadsheets, PDF documents, and standalone systems, it leads to data silos, manual work, and additional coordination loops. This makes scaling difficult—especially when there are many suppliers, material groups, inspection requirements, and approval levels involved.
material.one creates a shared digital platform for this purpose. Requirements, test plans, test results, supporting documentation, and approval statuses are consolidated in a structured manner, documented in a traceable way, and made available for digital processing across organizational boundaries.
Benefits for Volkswagen Group Suppliers
For suppliers, the added value lies primarily in guidance, transparency, and reduced coordination efforts. The platform helps them better understand requirements, work through tasks in a structured manner, and provide relevant documentation in an organized way.
These include, in particular:
clearly structured digital workspaces for material sampling
Centralized provision of relevant requirements and test plan information
Digital assignment of test results and documentation
a better overview of pending tasks and feedback
Clear status information during the approval process
less manual document consolidation
Audit-proof documentation of relevant supporting information
This makes digital sampling not only more efficient for manufacturers, but also easier to manage for suppliers.
👉 First steps for Volkswagen AG suppliers (Tier 1)
Benefits for manufacturers and testing, inspection, and certification providers (TIC/laboratories)
For manufacturers and testing service providers (TIC), scalability is a top priority. The more parties involved in an approval process, the more important consistent data structures, standardized procedures, and reliable documentation become.
material.one helps ensure that sampling information is recorded and verified more consistently across systems and organizational boundaries, and makes it available for approval decisions. This helps reduce the need for follow-up inquiries, improves the traceability of supporting documentation, and makes the approval process more transparent.
The main advantages are:
Greater process reliability through structured digital workflows
greater traceability of requirements, tests, and documentation
lower error rate due to fewer media breaks
more efficient collaboration with suppliers and laboratories
a better basis for audits and internal approval decisions
Support for shorter release cycles and a faster time to market
Integration into existing system environments
A key factor in the success of digital sampling is its integration into existing IT and process environments. material.one is designed not to function as a standalone system, but as a digital collaboration platform connecting manufacturers, suppliers, laboratories, and other stakeholders.
Within the Volkswagen Group, standardized interfaces for product, material, and emissions data play a key role. They support structured data exchange and enable the integration of digital sampling information into existing system landscapes.
This creates a more seamless flow of data: requirements and documentation are no longer exchanged as individual files, but are made available as structured information within the digital approval and documentation management system.
A step toward scalable collaboration
The collaboration with the Volkswagen Group is a prime example of a trend that is becoming increasingly important in the automotive industry: quality processes must operate digitally, in a standardized manner, and be auditable across organizational boundaries.
Material sampling is a particularly relevant use case in this context. It integrates technical requirements, supplier communication, laboratory processes, supporting documentation, and approval decisions into a single workflow.
material.one supports this integration as a platform for digital approval and documentation management. This makes collaboration within complex supply networks more structured, transparent, and scalable.
Conclusion
With the Volkswagen Group, material.one has gained an important new customer for digital material sampling and PPF/PPAP. This use case demonstrates how digital approval and documentation management can be efficiently supported within large industrial supply networks.
The focus is not on digitizing individual documents, but on the structured digital management of the entire sampling process: understanding requirements, planning inspections, providing evidence, tracking status, and documenting approvals in an audit-proof manner.
In doing so, material.one is strengthening its role as a platform for digital approval and documentation management in the automotive industry—and creating a robust foundation for scalable collaboration between manufacturers, suppliers, and laboratories.
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With material.one all stakeholders can collaborate a standardized manner in a compliance conforming way based on the "need to know". As an industry cloud platform, material.one provides information on material and material sampling, percentage of recycled material, certificates as well as CO₂ footprint information.