28. Production Parts Approval Process
Production Part Approval Process (PPAP) is a verification process for automotive OEMs to verify and validate confidence level of supplier’s production process and monitoring suppliers’ quality performance. PPAP can be implemented for new product introduction (NPI) or executing changes with respect to current production practices.
PPAP can be implemented based on the following changes.
For new production parts introduction or having a brand new supplier for the current production source.
Changes occurred on supplier’s raw material suppliers or outsourcing changes for certain parts.
Changes occurred from engineering design modifications, production process addition/modification or material/compound modification.
Changes including equipment or tool transfer (different location), replacement of current tool or additional equipment/tools.
PPAP can be classified in the general scopes and have the respective PPAP packaging document enlisted in the following aspects. The categories are not in a certified form, but the breakdown helps people to categorize the critical level for respective documents.
First, the PPAP scope can be split into the major 5 categories:
The PPAP documents listed below are documents which are generally required for the automotive OEMs. Additional documents might be required based on customer nature or regulatory compliance.
PPAP implementation stages can be enlisted as the following phases starting from contacting the supplier’s contract settlement to the long term quality performance monitoring. The graph below will list the stages accordingly.
In conclusion, PPAP is a complete tool for corporate to record and ensure product development and process establishment has a fine record tracking based on risk evaluation before going into mass production phases. The recording can also help to improve the NPI process flow and minimizing the variance during the on-going modifications.