Advanced Product Quality Planning
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Advance Product Quality Planning (or APQP) is a framework of procedures and techniques used to develop products in industry, particularly the automotive industry. It is quite similar to the concept of Design For Six Sigma (DFSS).
It is a defined process for a product development system for General Motors, Ford, Chrysler and their suppliers. 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." The process is described in the AIAG manual 810-358-3003.
History
APQP was developed in late '80 by a commission of experts gathered from the three biggest automotive companies in the world: FORD, GM and Chrysler. This commission invested five years to analyse the then current automotive development and production status in the US, Europe and especially in Japan. It was at the time that the success of the Japanese automotive companies was starting to be remarkable in the US market.APQP is utilised today by these three companies and affiliates. Suppliers will also be requested to follow such procedures and techniques. Also they will be requested to be audited to comply with QS9000. In recent years, QS9000 has been compiled together with the other main automotive standard VDA resulting in the TS16949.
Today APQP is maintained and extended by AIAG. AIAG is a non-profit association of automotive companies founded in 1982.
Main content of APQP
APQP serve as a guide in the development process and also a standard way to share results between suppliers and automotive companies. APQP specify three phases: Development, Industrialisation and Product Launch. Through these phases 23 main topics will be monitored. These 23 topics will be all completed before the production is started. They cover aspects as: design robustness, design testing and specification compliance, production process design, quality inspection standards, process capability, production capacity, product packaging, product testing and operators training plan between other items.APQP (Advanced Product Quality Planning) focuses on:
- Up-front quality planning
- Determining if customers are satisfied by evaluating the output and supporting continual improvement
- Plan and Define Program
- Product Design and Development Verification
- Process Design and Development Verification
- Product and Process Validation
- Planning
- Product Design and Development
- Process Design and Development
- Product and Process Validation
- Production
- 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
See also
External links
- [aiag.org]
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