How do I get an S-Rating?
Before you enter into a business relationship with Audi, you will receive an invitation to participate in the S‑Rating. This invitation is tied to a specific location and is dependent on the associated Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS) number.
Your production or service-providing location is assessed using a standardized questionnaire for the automotive industry, which you have to fill out online. This self-assessment questionnaire, also known as the SAQ, takes other factors into consideration and determines your S‑Rating score, i.e., whether you can be awarded contracts or not. Regardless of the result, the SAQ is helpful in identifying and actively addressing deficits and potential. For this purpose, the SAQ offers you specific suggestions for improvements to enhance your assessment.
In the event of increased risk exposure, we reserve the right to request an additional on-site audit. We generally use the standardized Responsible Supply Chain Initiative (RSCI) assessment framework for this purpose. If an on-site audit is necessary for a location, you will be requested to perform this within a defined period.
Due to the special challenges in raw material supply chains, some sourced materials, such as leather, mica, aluminum and batteries, are subject to additional sustainability requirements specific to the raw material, which impact their S‑Rating. Such requirements include the provision of transparency data for their upstream supply chains. If these requirements apply to you, you will be informed of this on a sourcing-specific basis.
S-Rating 2025
direct suppliers with completed Self-assessment questionnaire (SAQ)
audits (on-site) carried out in the course of the S-Rating
What is the SAQ?
The main points at a glance:
The SAQ is a questionnaire used to check your compliance with the Code of Conduct for Business Partners. An S-Rating is determined using your answers. You may be required to make improvements following an initial appraisal.
The self-assessment questionnaire (SAQ) is a key auditing instrument for assessing your company with regard to essential internal company guidelines and management systems. The questionnaire covers the following subject areas: management, human rights and working conditions, occupational health and safety, business ethics, environment, supply chain management and sourcing of raw materials. The current version of the SAQ is 5.0, which allows you to answer in eight languages: German, English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Chinese (Mandarin), Italian and Japanese.
As a future partner company, please fill out the questionnaire completely and truthfully. Participation in the SAQ is free of charge for you. It is possible to review the sustainability efforts of your company only if the questionnaire is filled out correctly. In addition to the answers you provide in the questionnaire, documents and certificates confirming the information may be required, which have to be submitted in one of the languages specified above. You will be requested to upload these as PDF files at the appropriate point.
The result of the self-assessment questionnaire is crucial for your assessment in the S-Rating and thus also for any collaboration. In principle, a contract can only be awarded if you have a positive S-Rating.
This is how you complete the self-assessment questionnaire:
- Please register on the platform supplierassurance.com.
- Enter the correct DUNS number of the production or service-providing location and the invitation code there. You will find these in the invitation email.
- Fill out the self-assessment questionnaire. Include the required documents and certificates to supplement the information you provide.
- Check the information you have given to make sure it is correct.
- Send the completed questionnaire.
SAQ in detail
Minimum requirements
The basis of each questionnaire is provided by the five minimum requirements, which have to be satisfied in order to receive an assessment in the S-Rating. These minimum requirements are written statements of principles from the management of our suppliers. You will be asked about these at several points within the self-assessment questionnaire. To be able to participate in the S-Rating, these minimum requirements have to be answered with “yes” and corroborated by appropriate documents. Formal standards such as the company logo, date and name and signature of a member of management must be observed.
The five minimum requirements are:
- Business partners have a Code of Conduct (question 3).
- Business partners have a policy on human rights and working conditions that covers at least the areas of child labor and young workers, wages and social benefits, working hours, modern slavery (i.e., slavery, servitude, forced or compulsory labor and human trafficking), freedom of association and collective bargaining, as well as harassment and non-discrimination (questions 5 and 5a).
- Business partners have a policy on occupational health and safety that covers at least the areas of emergency preparedness, accident and incident management as well as fire safety (questions 7 and 7a).
- Business partners have a policy on business ethics that covers at least the areas of corruption and anti-money laundering as well as conflicts of interest (questions 9 and 9a).
- Business partners have a policy on environmental protection that covers at least the areas of energy efficiency and renewable energies, as well as management of natural resources and waste prevention (questions 10 and 10a).
Producing companies with more than 100 employees at relevant locations must also demonstrate an environmental management system certified according to international standards (question 11). The EMAS and ISO14001 standards are accepted.
For more information on drawing up a declaration of principles, please see the FAQs.
Audit of the self-assessment questionnaire and next steps
Your self-assessment questionnaire is checked and validated by supplierassurance.com using the documents you have attached. The validation can take up to five work days. Should questions or anything that is not clear arise during this step, you will receive a notification from supplierassurance.com.
After the audit has been completed, you will receive recommendations on how to improve your rating. You can also find these recommendations for improvement at supplierassurance.com under the item “Recommendations” in the questionnaire after you have logged in.
AUDI AG (Volkswagen-Group) obtains access to your questionnaire and the evaluation using the invitation code you used to register at the beginning. AUDI AG (Volkswagen-Group) derives your S-Rating valid at this time from this percentage score and ultimately determines it using a variety of factors that form the basis of our decision. This results in the decision on whether or not you are eligible to be awarded contracts. You can view your result on the Volkswagen Group Business Platform or obtain it on request from AUDI AG (Volkswagen-Group).
The status messages of the SAQ have the following meanings
Response: Each new self-assessment questionnaire that is started begins with the status “Answer.” In this phase, you can fill out the questionnaire and add the required documents to it.
Review: After you send us the completed questionnaire, it is given the status “Review.” In this step, supplierassurance.com checks whether the documents you have uploaded are valid as verification of your answers. This process generally takes five work days. You cannot edit the SAQ during this period.
If supplierassurance.com identifies gaps or omissions in the questionnaire, the status is put back to “Answer.” The reason for this can be that not all the documents have been accepted as proof. Invalid documents can, for example, be certificates that have expired or documents that have been submitted in the incorrect language. Only documents in German, English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian, Chinese (Mandarin) or Japanese are accepted during the audit. Please see the FAQ for more information on the formal requirements that a document has to satisfy.
Completed: The SAQ has been answered and validated in full. It is regarded as completed, which also means that the result is established. You can, however, continue working on the self-assessment questionnaire and update documents to improve your result. Use the recommendations for improvement that supplierassurance.com provides you with to do this. The SAQ has to be reviewed again each time it is edited.
Tips for filling in the questionnaire and other information
The self-assessment questionnaire (SAQ) is a standardized questionnaire for the automotive industry. The catalog of questions is regularly updated; the SAQ that is currently valid is version 5.0. The SAQ has been devised and developed by Drive Sustainability, a partnership between several automotive manufacturers. This initiative, which Audi is also a part of together with the Volkswagen-Group, is committed to ensuring greater social responsibility and sustainability in the automotive sector.
NQC provides the questionnaire on supplierassurance.com as an external service provider. Registering on the platform and completing the SAQ are free of charge for you. As an independent party, NQC evaluates your answers in the questionnaire and reviews whether they are correct using the certificates that you upload. Your information can be reviewed only by using the invitation code. You can also share the SAQ with other members of Drive Sustainability.
You can stop filling out the questionnaire at any time and come back to it at a later time.
You can fill in the self-assessment questionnaire together with your colleagues. You will find the option to add other users to the account in your settings on supplierassurance.com.
You can improve your S‑Rating by taking into consideration the “Recommendations” in the questionnaire after you log in. We expressly recommend that you continually optimize the S-Rating, for example by keeping documents up to date – even if you have already been classified as eligible to be awarded contracts.
The self-assessment questionnaire is always valid only for the location to which the DUNS number has been assigned.
Drive Sustainability provides the current SAQ 5.0 as a PDF for download. You can familiarize yourself with the questions in advance and discuss them within your company.
The questionnaire contains explanatory background information that will help you to fill it out.
You will also find more information that may be useful to you when you fill out the questionnaire in the Supplier Handbook from Drive Sustainability. The Supplier Handbook is available only in English.
You can contact NQC at any time if you have technical questions about the platform and the SAQ via contact form, by calling +44 161 413 7983 or via live chat.
What is the on-site audit?
The main points at a glance:
An on-site audit may be requested based on risk as an additional auditing instrument. The audit is performed by an auditing firm. If the audit identifies nonconformities, these nonconformities must be resolved on the basis of a suitable corrective action plan within a defined period. A renewed on-site audit may also be necessary.
Like the SAQ, the on-site audit is an essential element of the S-Rating. Unlike the self-assessment questionnaire, which is mandatory for all companies, the on-site audit is requested based on risk. The location-specific review clarifies that material due diligence obligations are being implemented in accordance with the Code of Conduct for Business Partners. The review is based on four major topic areas: working conditions, occupational health and safety, environment and supply chain management.
If your company is scheduled for an on-site audit, you will be contacted by Audi or a representative of the Volkswagen-Group and requested to have the on-site audit carried out within 12 months. We generally expect an audit to be performed according to the standardized Responsible Sourcing Initiative (RSCI) assessment framework. The advantage for suppliers is that the results can be shared with other members of RSCI.
This is how the on-site audit works:
- Audit schedule: The supplier requests an audit via the RSCI platform and commissions a qualified audit service provider.
- On-site audit: The audit service provider generally starts the audit with management interviews followed by an inspection of the plant premises. This is supplemented by document checks and employee interviews.
- Conclusion and rating: The audit service provider writes a final report, which is presented during the course of a final meeting.
- Follow-up process: The supplier has to define suitable corrective actions for identified nonconformities as part of a Corrective Action Plan (CAP) and implement these on time. A renewed on-site audit may be necessary.
A result is provided following conclusion of the on-site audit. Once this result has been reviewed internally by the audit service provider, it is made available to Audi and the Volkswagen Group and becomes part of the S-Rating. Results below 50 points and nonconformities in the “zero tolerance” category lead to a negative rating. Contracts cannot be awarded if the S‑Rating is negative.
Identified nonconformities must be resolved independently and on time by the supplier as part of the CAP and corresponding follow-up processes must be successfully performed. If the CAP is not processed on time or if an on-site audit is refused in general, the supplier likewise receives a negative rating. Contracts cannot be awarded if the S-Rating is negative.
Further information
The on-site check reviews your location independently of your answers in the SAQ. Instead, the on-site check comprises eleven categories that are always inquired about during each check. These categories are: General management, child labor and young workers, freely chosen employment, employees’ rights, participation of the employees, work hours and overtime, fire safety and safe evacuation in an emergency, occupational health and safety, the handling of hazardous materials, environment, and supply chain management.
Aspects that have a negative impact on the result of the on-site check include for example emergency exits that are blocked, breaches of the working hours act, or the improper storage of chemicals.
