Advanced Product Quality Planning (APQP). A project management tool of the IAQG.

The Quality Horizon is focused on expanding the knowledge of our listeners on products and tools within the IAQG.
 
In this episode, we're joined by Jennifer Gray with Spirit Aerosystems who talks about APQP (Advanced Product Quality Planning) and PPAP (Production Part Approval Process).
 
We're tackling the topic at a high level and asking the questions - What is APQP? How does PPAP work within the APQP and What are the five phases involved in the 9145 standard?
 
Gray also shares with us her involvement and commitment to the early careers program and the advice she has for young professionals looking to join the IAQG.
 
Gray is the IDR for the 9145 writing team, the SDR for the 9163 writing team, the global APQP deployment team leader, and was recently named the team lead for the AAQG.
 
The IAQG is the International Aerospace Quality Group and sets the standard for quality within the worldwide supply chain within the aviation, space, and defense industry. IAQG currently maintains 26 active standards that establish common/shared tools and methods for quality improvement. To learn more, visit https://iaqg.org.  

Transcript

The Quality Horizon – APQG: A Project Management Tool of IAQG 

[00:00:00]  

Susan: Greetings everyone and welcome. I'm your host, Susan Matson, and with me today is Jennifer Gray. Jennifer is the Supplier Quality Manager at Spirit Aerosystems. Additionally, she's the IDR for the 9145 Writing Team, the SDR for the 9163 Writing Team, the Global APQP Deployment Team Leader, and the AAQG Sector Lead for the PSDI Team. 

Susan: Welcome to the show, Jennifer.  

Jennifer: Thank you. Good morning.  

Susan: Good morning. The first thing I'd like to say is thank you for that long list of IAQG, AAQG participant roles that I just shared. So kudos to you for being so involved.  

Jennifer: Thank you. You're welcome.  

Susan: Now, we could talk, obviously, about a whole bunch of different things with that whole list, but what I'd really like to focus on is APQP. To begin, what I'd like to do is [00:01:00] if you could tell the listeners what does the APQP acronym stand for, and then what is APQP?  

Jennifer: Sure. APQP stands for advanced product quality planning, and just like it title states, it is a process where we're looking for potential risks and issues earlier on in the design and production system process. 

Jennifer: So that way we can either put actions in place to fully eliminate those potential issues and risks, or if they aren't. Are not able to be completely eliminated we put control plans in place. So if they do become realized, we have ways to work through them.  

Susan: So APQP is the process and so PPAP is what part of that play? 

Jennifer: PPAP, which stands for production part approval process is actually, the objective evidence or the collection of records confirms that production process is able to consistently produce product while fulfilling requirements [00:02:00] and hopefully eliminating variation in your process. PPAP like I said, is those collection of elements that include a total of 11 elements. 

Jennifer: Some are very familiar to us, such as the FMEA. So if you're a design organization, you would do a DFMEA. PFMEA is looking at the process risks, process flows, control plans, and first article inspections just to name a few.  

Susan: Sounds like it. So, in the 9145 standard, we have, you talk about phases, five phases in particular when it comes to APQP. Can you go into those and explain what the different phases are in the process?  

Jennifer: Sure. To start, I just want to level set by telling everyone that APQP is actually a project management tool. There is a misconception that since the word quality is in the title, that it's a quality tool, but it actually is a project management tool. 

Jennifer: There are three pillars to success for APQP. First being your cross functional [00:03:00]  team approach, organizational commitment, followed by effective project planning. So there are five phases within the APQP process. The first one we start out with is phase one, which is planning. This is where we pull all the requirements together and define the concept of the APQP project. 

Jennifer: Phase two is focused on the product design and development. That is where we design he product considering all those potential risks as well as the requirements. For example, we talked about the DFMEA earlier. This is where you would do the DFMEA process if you're a design organization. Phase three is the process design and development phase. 

Jennifer: So this is where we look at the production system and consider that with all potential risk and requirements included. Phase four is the product and process validation. This is where we validate that the product and process that we designed is compliant and consistent. So if this is where you would do your first article inspection [00:04:00] to validate that your process is compliant. 

Jennifer: And then phase five is your ongoing production. This is where you incorporate any lessons learned back into the process, best practices. If you do have any non-conformities, build that back into the process so that you can even make your process better.  

Susan: Wow, that really is a management tool. The phases really kind of map it out for an organization, doesn't it? 

Jennifer: Yes, it does.  

Susan: The 9145 has been out for a couple years, but you're in the revision part of that. What are some things that you are looking to do, or what are the things that are coming out of that revision work that your team is doing?  

Jennifer: So mostly the outcome of this revision is more clarification. This is starting to become more and more of a utilized process industry. So there's a lot of questions on how to do this. So we're adding more clarification to the standard as well as to the guidance material that accompanies the standard to make it more clear [00:05:00] for our industry.  

Susan: Yeah, I've noticed, APQP that. That seems to be a buzzword right now, at least within the IAQG and some of the materials. It's gotten a lot of visibility. So, are people really embracing this?  

Jennifer: Yes. Like I said it's that risk mitigation process. It's taken our industry into more of a proactive state than a reactive state. So, like I said earlier, if we can find those potential risks and issues earlier on in the process, they're less difficult to fix. And they cost less money to fix earlier than if it. It was postproduction of that process. 

Jennifer: Whole point is to try to make a more stable process, have less nonconformities. Like we said earlier, APQP is trying to find risks and issues earlier in the process, which takes our industry into a more proactive state than a reactive state. It's easier to fix potential issues and it's less costly to fix issues earlier on in the process [00:06:00] than it is after the part has been designed and produced.  

Susan: Yeah. So, it sounds like this is really a cross functional team approach and how people can identify issues and problems before they become, would you agree with that and could you go into a little more detail about that? 

Jennifer: Oh, a hundred percent. Yes. It's a cross functional team approach. Too often we tend to stick with our silos. And when I say silos, engineering stays in the engineering world, quality stays in the quality of world, manufacturing stays in the manufacturing world. And we're not doing a very good job of communicating across the board. 

Jennifer: And so APQP takes us out of that current state and we start looking at things with all the functions included that opens your eyes to what the other functions see or have issues with. And this all helps drive a better product and process having all these teams come together and brainstorm and put actions in place. 

Susan: That's great. So outside of [00:07:00] the 9145 standard and how it's being involved, what are some of the things that would be helpful for people to know about this and where can they maybe find those tools to help them get more understanding of APQP?  

Jennifer: Great question. So, the 9145 standard defines the shells or the what's required, but if you go to the IAQG website and go to the SCMH page, which stands for Supply Chain Management Handbook. 

Jennifer: Under 7.3 APQP, there is a plethora of material that you can utilize and it's free to our industry. You just have to sign up. But we have webinars that talks about the main pieces of APQP. We have additional guidance material. I spoke about that earlier. It's the how to go do or how to deploy these activities. We also have templates and checklists that the industry can use that all help support those APQP activities. [00:08:00] 

Susan: Yes, there's a wealth of information and I believe that's the plan and management section in SCMH, correct?  

Jennifer: Yes.  

Perfect. So definitely take a look at those. I know that there's lots of webinars and lots of materials that people can get more information about it. So what are some things that might be coming forth from SDMH? Do we have more tools coming?  

Jennifer: So, as we were going through the rewrite, we were taking back some of the industry feedback we got and things that were identified through that industry feedback, we are utilizing in our guidance material. We are incorporating that into our guidance material for our industry. So yes, along with the 9145 rewrite, we are updating our guidance material to go along with the release of the standard. So yes, there is more to come.  

Susan: Great. So stay tuned for that I guess, let's switch some gears for a little bit and talk about you. When did you first become involved in the IAQG?  

Jennifer: So I started [00:09:00] my journey in the IAQG about four years ago. I had left the company that I was working for previously and came to Spirit. I did have some APQP knowledge from my previous company and the 9145 team needed someone from Spirit membership to join. And so I was asked to join. Been on the team ever since. Love it. Have a lot of passion for the AAQG and IAQG. So many good things with this organization.  

Susan: Yes. Yes. And there's one thing that I failed to mention in my beginning intro with you is that you are also just recently became the team lead for the AAQG for the early careers team. Can you talk a little bit about that and what kind of advice would you give to people kind of entering into this field? 

Jennifer: Sure. I am a huge advocate of young. Professionals get involved with the IAQG and AAQG. We are losing a lot of knowledge within our industry right now with people leaving, retiring. So we really need to ensure that we are mentoring our up and comers and building a pipeline of young professionals to carry on [00:10:00] this activity and bring newness to the industry as well. 

Jennifer: This has been seen by each of the different sectors within the IAQG. So they've either started or reinvigorated what we're calling mentorships or career development programs within the IAQG and the different sectors. So I would strongly recommend that if you have a young professional who is very interested in getting involved with the AAQG or IAQG, have them reach out to their voting members and let them know. So they can pass that name on to us and we can get them involved and started working on some projects.  

Susan: Keep it going. Keep it thriving, right? Yes. Wonderful. So before I end. Is there anything about APQP that the process or the pillars or how people are utilizing it that we haven't really covered that you just wanted to make sure everyone knew about? 

Jennifer: One concern we hear quite a bit is that there is a lot more upfront work and it's too [00:11:00] expensive to deploy. What I can say is, yes, there is more work involved, but by doing that work, you are actually ensuring that you have a product. Better products and a better process and you actually result in cost savings because you're able to reduce your variation in your process. You're able to reduce your nonconformities. So all in all, you have a better robust process.  

Susan: Wonderful. Thank you so much, Jennifer. I really appreciate the time we shared today talking about APQP and a little bit about the Early Careers team. So this is Susan Matson, and you have been listening to the IAQG Quality Horizon. Until next time, stay safe.