Modules

Advanced Product Quality Planning

APQP

FactoryPRO – Advanced Product Quality Planning

APQP

APQP is used to create a common core of product quality-planning principles for suppliers.


According to the American Society for Quality (ASQ), Automotive Division, APQP is a structured process that includes critical tasks from concept approval through production. The aim is to create a product quality plan for developing and manufacturing products that meet customer requirements.


FactoryPRO’s APQP Application follows the five-phase process defined by industry experts:

  1. Product Planning and Quality Program Definition
  2. Product Design and Development
  3. Process Design and Development
  4. Validation of Product and Process
  5. Production Launch, Assessment, and Improvement

APQP Phase 1: Planning and Program Definition

In this phase of application, planning activities associated with understanding the customer’s needs and product expectations are captured.

Examples: Customer wants Product specification such as

  1. product design
  2. Reliability
  3. Quality goals

APQP Phase 2: Product Design and Development Completing product design is the focus of this phase.

Tasks involved in this Stage:

  1. Completed design review and verification
  2. Defined material specifications and equipment requirements
  3. Completed design failure mode and effect analysis to assess failure probabilities
  4. Established control plans for product prototype creation

APQP Phase 3: This phase focuses on evaluating manufacturing process that will produce the product at handt. Goal is to achieve product specifications, product quality, and production costs in mind.

Examples of outcomes in this phase include:

  1. Process flow configuration
  2. ProcessFMEA to identify and deal with risks
  3. Operational process quality specifications
  4. Product finishing and packaging requirements

APQP Phase 4: Validating the Process and the Product This is the test phase for validating

Steps in this phase include:

  1. Confirming capability and reliability of the manufacturing process
  2. Performing production trial runs
  3. Validate effectiveness of the deployed manufacturing approach
  4. Adjustments before moving to the next phase

APQP Phase 5: Launch, Assessments, and Continual Improvement. The full-scale production launch occurs in this phase.

Steps in this phase include:

  1. An improved manufacturing process
  2. Improved quality
  3. Improved customer satisfaction