Advanced product quality planning (APQP) is a framework of procedures and techniques used to develop
products
Product may refer to:
Business
* Product (business), an item that can be offered to a market to satisfy the desire or need of a customer.
* Product (project management), a deliverable or set of deliverables that contribute to a business solution
...
in
industry
Industry may refer to:
Economics
* Industry (economics), a generally categorized branch of economic activity
* Industry (manufacturing), a specific branch of economic activity, typically in factories with machinery
* The wider industrial sector ...
, particularly in the
automotive industry
The automotive industry comprises a wide range of company, companies and organizations involved in the design, Business development, development, manufacturing, marketing, selling, Maintenance, repairing, and Custom car, modification of motor ve ...
. It differs from
Six Sigma
Six Sigma (6σ) is a set of techniques and tools for process improvement. It was introduced by American engineer Bill Smith while working at Motorola in 1986.
Six Sigma strategies seek to improve manufacturing quality by identifying and removin ...
in that the goal of Six Sigma is to reduce variation but has similarities to
Design for Six Sigma (DFSS).
According to the
Automotive Industry Action Group (AIAG), the purpose of APQP is "to produce a product quality plan which will support development of a product or service that will satisfy the customer." It is a product development process employed by
General Motors
General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. The company is most known for owning and manufacturing f ...
,
Ford,
Chrysler
FCA US, LLC, Trade name, doing business as Stellantis North America and known historically as Chrysler ( ), is one of the "Big Three (automobile manufacturers), Big Three" automobile manufacturers in the United States, headquartered in Auburn H ...
, and their suppliers.
History
Advanced product quality planning is a process developed in the late 1980s by a commission of experts who gathered around the 'Big Three' of the US automobile industry: Ford, GM, and Chrysler.
Representatives from the three automotive original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and the Automotive Division of American Society for Quality Control (ASQC) created the Supplier Quality Requirement Task Force for developing a common understanding on topics of mutual interest within the automotive industry.
This commission worked five years to analyze the then-current automotive development and production status in the US, Europe, and especially in Japan. At the time, the Japanese automotive companies were successful in the US market.
APQP is utilized by US automakers and some of their affiliates. Tier 1 suppliers are typically required to follow APQP procedures, techniques, and are also typically required to be audited and registered to
IATF 16949. This methodology is also being used in other manufacturing sectors.
The
Automotive Industry Action Group (AIAG) is a non-profit association of automotive companies founded in 1982. The basis for the process control plan is described in AIAG's APQP manual These include:
#
failure mode and effects analysis
Failure is the social concept of not meeting a desirable or intended Goal, objective, and is usually viewed as the opposite of success. The criteria for failure depends on context, and may be relative to a particular observer or belief system ...
(FMEA) manual
#
statistical process control
Statistical process control (SPC) or statistical quality control (SQC) is the application of statistics, statistical methods to monitor and control the quality of a production process. This helps to ensure that the process operates efficiently, ...
(SPC) manual
#
measurement systems analysis (MSA) manual
#
production part approval process (PPAP) manual
Main content of APQP
APQP serves as a guide in the development process and also a standard way to share results between suppliers and automotive companies. APQP specifies three phases: Development, Industrialization, and Product Launch. Through these phases, 23 main topics will be monitored. These topics must be completed before the production is started. They include the following aspects: design robustness, design testing, and specification compliance, production process design, quality inspection standards, process capability, production capacity, product packaging, product testing, and operator training plan.
APQP focuses on:
* Up-front quality planning
* Determining if customers are satisfied by evaluating the output and supporting continual improvement
APQP consists of five phases:
* Plan and define program
* Product design and development verification
* Process design and development verification
* Product and process validation and production feedback
* Launch, assessment, and corrective action
The APQP process has seven major elements:
* Understanding the needs of the customer
* Proactive feedback and corrective action
* Designing within the process capabilities
* Analyzing and mitigating failure modes
* Verification and validation
* Design reviews
* Control special/critical characteristics
Adoption outside of automotive
The APQP framework has been adopted by the global wind energy industry through the formation of members organization APQP4Wind
.
See also
*
Quality management
Total quality management, Total Quality management (TQM), ensures that an organization, product, or service consistently performs as intended, as opposed to Quality Management, which focuses on work process and procedure standards. It has four mai ...
*
Design For Manufacturing and Assembly (DFMA)
*
Production part approval process (PPAP)
References
{{reflist
Automotive industry
Quality control