Sometimes, alphabet soup is good for what ails the manufacturing process!
Quality is better than quantity in the manufacturing industry. Market-leading companies are facing quality challenges by adopting solutions and technologies to better manage their quality risk processes.
Advanced Product Quality Planning (APQP) is a structured method of defining and establishing the steps necessary to ensure that a product satisfies the customer. APQP involves 75% up front planning and 25% implementation through production, to determine customer satisfaction and continuous improvement.
Although APQP is generally associated with the automotive industry, the quality planning processes can be applied to all industries. The “Quality-One” APQP approach is considered to be Best-in-Class, because it is easily communicated to design teams and suppliers.
The Production Part Approval Process (PPAP) involves the management of many tasks. These tasks are defined as ‘Elements’ and different industries have their own quantity and definition of elements. Each element may be gathering a document and inserting it into the PPAP report. This is linked to an element or is creating a document such as process flow, dimensional, control plan, et cetera. Once all elements are complete and checked, the PPAP report can be collated and submitted. Many industries see PPAP as a key indicator to their business.
Some manufacturers are adopting proactive risk assessment methodologies such as Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) - connecting special characteristics between the Design FMEA (DFMEA) and the Process FMEA (PFMEA). Then they are linked to Control Plans in order to identify and avoid potential failures and costly recalls. A successful FMEA activity helps to identify potential failure modes based on experience with similar products and processes - or based on common physics of failure logic. It is widely used in development and manufacturing industries in various phases of the product life cycle. Effects analysis refers to studying the consequences of those failures on different system levels.
So, there you have it – 26 letters scrambled in a limitless combination of order – all designed to make things better. Let the Michigan Manufacturing Technology Center make things better for you by giving you a totally clear understanding of how these quality control approaches can add more life to your job and more job to your life!
The Michigan Manufacturing Technology Center is accredited by the International Association for Continuing Education and Training (IACET) and is authorized to issue the IACET CEU.