Your evidence is
spread across the plant
The VDA ISA catalogue asks precise questions. The answers exist — in work instructions, network diagrams, training records, supplier agreements and the memory of two people who have been there for twenty years.
"Show me how access to prototype areas is controlled, and where that is documented."
The answer sits in a physical security concept, a badge process description, a photography policy, a supplier agreement and the site plan — four of which were written for a different purpose.
Why ordinary search does not get there
Documentation follows the plant, not the catalogue.
Nobody wrote a document called 'control 1.6.1'. The evidence was written to run a factory, and it has to be mapped afterwards.
Several sites, several histories.
Each plant solved the same requirement differently, and an assessment scope covering three sites needs three answers, not one averaged one.
Knowledge leaves with people.
Prototype protection and access rules are often carried by long-serving staff. The retirement of one person can turn a documented control into an undocumented one.
A worked example
How is access to the prototype area at this site controlled?
- 01Physical security concept, section 5
Defines the zone and the badge classes permitted to enter.
- 02Work instruction WI-142
Describes the escort rule for external visitors and the logging obligation.
- 03Supplier agreement, annex 3
Passes the photography ban to the supplier and names the penalty.
- 04Training record, 2026 cycle
Shows who was trained on the rule and when.
A complete control description assembled from four sources, with the training gap for one shift named explicitly rather than averaged away.
What ARGUS does here
Control question to evidence
Each catalogue question is answered with the specific document and section that supports it, per site rather than per company.
Legacy and scanned documents
OCR ingestion for the paper and PDF archives that plant documentation actually lives in, including decades-old material.
Named gaps
Where nothing in the indexed documents answers a question, that is the output — the useful input for the pre-assessment.
Stays on site
Prototype and supplier documentation is exactly the material that must not leave the perimeter. Deployment is on your infrastructure.
What it does not do
Stated here rather than discovered in week three of a pilot.
- ARGUS does not perform assessments and issues no labels. TISAX assessments are conducted by ENX-approved audit providers.
- It cannot document a control that does not exist. It can tell you, with evidence, that it is missing.
- The catalogue evolves; mappings must be refreshed when a new version applies.
- Built and demonstrated scenarios; no production installations to cite.
Questions we get asked
Does this replace our TISAX consultant?+
What about documents in Czech, Slovak, Polish or Hungarian?+
Can we scope it to one site first?+
Test it on a question you already lost time on
Bring one question your own documents should be able to answer, and the documents that ought to contain the answer. If the evidence is not there, that is the result — and it is worth knowing before an auditor finds it.