The abbreviation “PPAP”stands for Production Part Approval Process. It is an exceptionallycritical tool, usuallyoutsourced for ensuring quality and specifications compliance in the manufacturing industry. All automotivemanufacturers follow this particular process. It is vital to establish confidence in the supplier's parts and assembly's quality and follow the procedure.
PPAP’s increasing footprint
Today’s manufacturing sector is highly competitive. It is one such industrial sector that is highly driven by cost and quality. These two factors-quality and cost are critical to the success and survival of any organization associated with the manufacturing business. As the cost of raw materials and labour increase inevitably, the end products cost also increase. This is a scenario when it becomes difficult to manage as every stakeholder involved in the business is looking for cost-cutting and greater profitability. It has become so competitive that many parts are outsourced to overseas manufacturers as they have a better process. But the flip side is that the delivery lead time becomes more, and one has to place large quantity orders to make the import cost viable.
Using PPAP consulting or PPAP consultants locally helps on many counts. They are regarded as the key mediators between the manufacturer and suppliers. They take the responsibility of delivering quality parts as per specification and ensuring that there areno failures in the first-time delivery or recalls.
Earlier, PPAP services were utilized only in the automotive and aerospace industries. Still, their scope has now extended to other sectors as well. Every manufacturing sector wants to survive the competition and believes that timely communication and quality products will only help. In the automotive industry, PPAP is more prominent and organized. There is a manual on it published by Automotive Industry Action Group (AIAG).
The PPAP is a sort of a coordinator who ensures that the parts and assembly suppliers understandthe customers' engineering design specifications and the total requirements. PPAP gets confirmation that the supplier has the infrastructure and process capable of consistently producing products and supplying them during the actual production run at the agreed price. As PPAP and other quality tools are implemented into more industries, it is vital to understand the PPAP requirements to remain competitive as a parts supplier.
How to perform the PPAP process?
Since PPAP caters to the various manufacturing process, it is a detailed process customized to each manufacturing process. It is also complex and beyond the scope of this article. However, in summary, it is a collection of key elements that commits to providing quality products as per specification, schedule, and rate. The requirements at each level are usuallynegotiated atthe beginning during the negotiation and quotation time.
PPAP Submission levels
The PPAP submissionis usually divided into five main levels or classifications.They are as:
- Level 1 – Part Submission Warrant (PSW) submitted to the customer only.
- Level 2 – Part Submission Warrant (PSW) of product samples and accompanied by limited supporting data.
- Level 3 – Part Submission Warrant (PSW) with product samples and accompanied by complete supporting data.
- Level 4 – Part Submission Warrant (PSW) along with other requirements as required by the customer.
- Level 5 – Part Submission Warrant (PSW) with product samples and complete supporting data sent to customers manufacturing location for review.
The above fivelevels areaccompanied by 18 elements such as design documentation, engineering documentation, customer engineering approval, design failure mode, impact analysis, etc., in a detailed description.