APQP Process | All you Need to Know

The Advance Product Quality Plan (APQP Process) was designed to help deliver benefits to the entire supply chain –

·         For direct resources to satisfy the customer (Satisfaction).

·         Promote early detection of necessary changes, discard late changes

·         Provide quality products on time at a low cost.

·         Designed to be "first-event" action, not "after-the-fact" exercise

The five major activities are:

·         Planning

·         Product Development

·         Process Development

·         Product and Process Validation

·         Production

5 steps of APQP Process (APQP):

(Plan and Define the Program)

·         Product Design and Development

·         Process Design and Development

·         Product and Process Validation

·         Feedback, Assessment and Corrective Action

APQP Process Phase 1 | Plan and Define the Program

When customer demands require the introduction of a new product or an existing overhaul, the initial plan becomes priority and centric even before discussion of product design or redesign, In this APQP phase, planning is directed towards understanding customer needs and product expectations. Planning activities include gathering the data needed to use what information the customer needs and then hashing out product attributes. The quality program required to make the specified product can then be defined. The output of this work includes product design, reliability and quality goals.

APQP Process Phase 2-Product Design and Development

Completing product design is the focus of this phase. This is also where product feasibility evaluation comes into play.

The results from the work in this phase include:

·         Complete design review and verification

·         Defined material specifications and equipment requirements

·         Complete design failure mode and impact analysis to assess failure probabilities

·         Control plans established for product prototype manufacture

APQP Process Phase 3 Process Design and Development

This phase focuses on planning the manufacturing process that will produce a new or improved product. The goal is to design and develop the production process taking into account product specifications, product quality, and production costs. The process must be capable of producing the required quantity to meet the expected consumer demand while maintaining efficiency.

Examples of results in this phase include:

·         A complete process flow configuration

·         A complete process failure mode and impact analysis to identify and deal with risks

·         Operational process quality specifications

·         Product Finishing and Packaging Requirements

APQP Phase 4 Product and Process Validation

This is the testing phase to verify the manufacturing process and the final product.

Steps in this phase include:

·         Verifying the capability and reliability of the manufacturing process and product quality acceptance criteria.

·         Performance tests

·         Testing product production to confirm the effectiveness of deployed manufacturing approaches

·         Reconcile necessary adjustments before proceeding to the next step

APQP Phase 5-Feedback, Assessment and Corrective Action

Full-scale production projection takes place in this phase, with an emphasis on evaluating and improving processes. This phase includes reducing process variation in the mainstream, identifying issues and initiating corrective actions to support continuous improvement, as well as collecting and evaluating data related to customer feedback and process efficiency and quality planning effectiveness.

Typical results include:

·         An improved manufacturing process through reduction of process differences

·         Improved quality of product delivery and customer service

·         Better Customer Satisfaction