What is PPAP?
PPAP is an acronym for Production Parts Approval Process, which is a formal method of production part approval from a manufacturer to its customer that was developed by and is widely used in the automotive industry, and has since found wide usage in many other industries as well. It was developed by Automotive Industry Action Group (AIAG), a non-profit organization created to develop recommendations and a framework for the improvement of quality in the North American automotive industry – AIAG guidelines, such as those for PPAP, have become the standard in the automotive industry and are often required by OEMs and Tier-1 suppliers.
In the automotive industry, OEMs and their suppliers work through formal design and development processes to establish engineering specifications for each product and component produced, and PPAP is an industry standard to ensure that the engineering design and product specifications are met through prototyping and dimensional layouts, that production processes have adequate statistical capability to ensure consistent quality, and that measurement systems are repeatable with results that are reproduceable between operators. The purpose of PPAP is as follows:
- Supplier meets the manufacturability and quality requirments of the parts supplied to the customer
- Provide confirmation that the customer engineering design record and specification requirments are understood with clarity and fulfilled by the supplier
- Show that established manufacturing processes have the potential to produce the part that meets all requirements during the actual production run
PPAP is important to make sure that correct specifications are used every time a new component is developed, or any time a significant change is made to the existing component by which it is manufactured. This process gives OEMs and customers confidence in the products being supplied by ensuring that the supplier is meeting the manufacturing and quality requirements of the parts being produced and sanctions quality output and assurance. This confidence is gained through the collection of records and data that consititute the 18 elements of a PPAP, with varying elements being supplied to the customer in the formal PPAP submission depending on the level of PPAP required. These 18 elements are:
- Design records
- Engineering change documents
- Customer engineering approval
- Design FMEA (DFMEA)
- Process flow diagrams (PFD)
- Process FMEA (PFMEA)
- Control plan
- Measurement system analysis (MSA)
- Dimensional analysis
- Material performance results
- Initial process studies (process capability)
- Qualified laboratory documentation
- Appearance approval report (AAR)
- Sample product
- Master sample
- Checking aids
- Records of compliance
- Part submission warrant (PSW)
Following PPAP can provide multiple benefits such as maintaining design integrity, evidence to process stability, improve the quality of component parts, assurance that parts would conform to customer requirements, preventing the use of unapproved parts, and reducing the cost of poor quality, etc. The final element, the PSW, is a warrant that is submitted to the customer with the package that they can sign following the review of the submission to confirm that they have observed adequate evidence that specifications and capability, capacity, measurement system, and other requirements have been met to ensure consistent delivery of quality products – the signed warrant allows the supplier to begin supplying product to the customer.
Since PPAP is required anytime a new part of change to an existing part or process is being planned and may be requested by a customer at any time during the life of a product, maintaining a quality system that develops and documents all of the requirements of a PPAP submission, no matter if you have been asked to deliver one, is a must.
Manage your PPAP Process
PPAPQUEST is IntellaQuest’s single integrated system to manage your PPAP process from start to finish. PPAPQUEST solves the challenges of PPAP Management with the following features:
- Single PPAP Management System: Significantly reduce the effort and cost related to PPAP Management
- Collaboration Portal: Collaboration Portal allows a complete online collaboration of the Client, your Company, and the Supplier. Through Collaboration Portal, provide suppliers with their specific tasks & information to deliver, seamlessly within PPAPQuest
- PPAP Dashboard for Powerful Reporting & Data Analytics with Power BI Integration: Dashboard and Data Analytics to manage all PPAPs at a glance. PPAPQuest Dashboard identifies all of your PPAPs with full drill-down capability to identify and correct problem areas
- Consistent & Disciplined Process: Ensure every step of the PPAP process is properly documented, tracked, and executed
- Seamless and Automated PPAP Workflow: Automated management of any Level (1-5) PPAP as required and all 18 elements of a PPAP, from Design Document all the way through Part Submission Warrant
- Fully Configurable: Configurability and Flexibility to align the PPAP to the company’s specific processes and business
- SupplierQuest Integration: Seamless integration to SupplierQuest for complete Supplier Management through every step of the PPAP
- Automated Signoffs: Automated Supplier sign off on all required steps in the process
- Status Timelines: The status timeline clearly shows everyone the progress every step of the way
- Cycle Timelines: Cycle time clocks for each step for analysis and efficiency improvements
- Automatic Email Notifications: Email notifications and Reminder emails are sent to all applicable shareholders
- Security Setting: Set security levels as needed
- History & Traceability: Full traceability of all changes made
Resources
- https://intellaquest.com/ppapquest/
- https://www.aiag.org/quality/automotive-core-tools/ppap
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Production_part_approval_process
- https://smallbusiness.chron.com/definition-ppap-39756.html
- https://jgarantmc.com/ppap/
- https://www.ideagen.com/thought-leadership/blog/what-is-ppap-and-why-is-it-important
PPAPQuest
Industry Leading Features
- Dependency Matrix
- Conditional Data Mirroring
- Preformatted Templates
- Comprehensive Libraries
- Enhanced Change Tracking
- Structured Lists
- Security
- Multi language support
