ISO 9001:2015 - Hidden Advantage in Business Management
Discover how ISO 9001:2015 can be utilized as a business advantage when considering business management.
Understanding Advanced Product Quality Planning (APQP)
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What is APQP?
Advanced Product Quality Planning "… is a structured method of defining and establishing the steps necessary to assure that a product satisfies the customer." – Advanced Product and Quality Planning and Control Plan, APQP 2nd Edition.
By design, APQP is 75% planning and 25% implementation. APQP intends to support the entire life cycle of a product, focusing on continual improvement-type activities during a post product launch. Like most quality tools, APQP relies on a precise and accurate definition of the customer's requirements. To accomplish this, steady process ownership, clearly defined roles, and outlined cross-functional team involvement is required.
APQA is far and away one of the most comprehensive of the Quality Core Tools. It pulls together a variety of proven supporting quality tools through a phased project approach.
The 5 Phases of APQP and the Key Elements to Each
Planning and Defining Program – During this phase, there are three key elements that a company looking to succeed with its product should focus on the Voice of the Customer, the reliability of quality goals (i.e. product safety or competitor product reliability benchmarks), and a Product Assurance Plan that collects all of the design goals for the given product and translates them into design requirements.
Product Design and Development – At this stage, the focus shifts to three different key elements, including a Preliminary Process Flow Chart which can be instrumental in providing an early look into the process flows needed for Phase 3, a Design for Manufacturability that minimizes potential production impacts like component assembly complexities or material handling issues, and a Prototype Build that should be developed through a control plan-type approach to ensure organizational confidence and readiness.
Process Design and Development – Here the three key elements to pay attention to are: Design Verification that assesses whether all design requirements are in place, a Characteristics Matrix which is often overlooked during APQP, but allows for a company to understand design concepts, characteristics, process parameters, and manufacturing locations. Lastly, a MSA Plan should be a priority to identify appropriate checking aids within the process's development.
Product and Process Validation – At this phase, the three key elements that stand out break down like this: The creation of a Floor Plan Layout before production changeover should take into account the appropriateness of inspection points and storage areas, a Preliminary Process Capability Study should be conducted in accordance with relevant customer requirements, and a Quality Planning Sign-Off is the final go/no-go decision that should be accompanied by process flow charts, control plans, process instructions, monitoring and measurement devices in place.
Feedback, Assessment, and Corrective Actions – In this final stage, there are two key elements to focus on: A Production Control Plan that should now be a final approved extension of what was once the Pilot Control Plan and the Pre-Launch Control Plan, and Lessons Learned/Best Practices reporting that often occur during post-launch with the design of improving upon the initial APQP performance in future projects.
It's important to note that, APQP is an excellent quality tool and is much more complex and carries more requirements than presented in this article. Each of the 5 phases referred to above has more components and elements needed to produce the desired results from APQP effectively. However, for the sake of clarity, simplification, and focus, some of the most vital features were presented to highlight their importance within each phase.
Tackling APQP and then looking to start the journey toward achieveing certification of your quality management system?