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Field Book · Chapter 1 of 8 · Requirements and PPAP plan

Set Up the Launch

Day one of a new part launch is for reading: the drawing, the special characteristics, the customer requirements and the PPAP level. Then plan backward from the due date.

By Chris Martin, quality manager. 2 minute read. Free, no signup.

Day one is for reading, not forms. Read the drawing and the customer requirements end to end, find the special characteristic, confirm the PPAP submission level, draw the process flow and write the PPAP plan with an owner and a week for every element. Then plan backward from the due date and aim to send it two days early.

It's Monday of week 1. A purchase order and a drawing arrive for a new part: latch cover LC-5927, a molded plastic cover with a snap hook that latches it to a housing. The customer's PPAP is due at the end of week 12. Twelve weeks sounds like plenty. It is not.

One thing first. PPAP is an automotive process, and your customer's requirements come first. Where they say something different from this book, they win. The steps themselves hold for any new part launch, PPAP or not.

Day one is for reading

Most launch trouble starts with something nobody read. Before any form is opened:

  1. Read the drawing and the customer requirements, end to end. This drawing has 14 characteristics.
  2. Find the special characteristics. The customer marks one: snap hook height, 1.20 plus or minus 0.10 mm. It gets the most scrutiny at every step that follows.
  3. Confirm the PPAP submission level. There are five levels, and the customer's requirements say which one applies. Here they ask for all 18 elements. Do not assume. Read it, and ask if it is unclear.
  4. Draw the process flow. Five steps: receive resin, dry resin, mold, trim and inspect, pack.
  5. Write the PPAP plan. Eighteen rows, one per element, each with an owner and a week.

Plan backward from the due date

The plan works backward from week 12: PFMEA in weeks 2 and 3, the control plan in week 4, work instruction and training in weeks 5 and 6, gage studies in week 7, first article in week 8, the run at rate in weeks 9 and 10, the package in week 11, and submission in week 12. Aim to send it two days early. A day of slack costs nothing. A day of surprise costs a week.

Read more: the PPAP 18 elements and IATF 16949 vs ISO 9001. For any term you do not know, see the quality glossary.

The mistake to avoid

Starting with the forms. Teams open the checklist and begin filling boxes. The checklist tracks the work. It does not decide the work. The customer's requirements decide.

ON THE FLOOR MONDAY
  • Pull the customer requirements for your next new part.
  • Write the submission level and the due date at the top of the plan.
  • Give every element an owner and a week this week.

Open the printable Monday Board

Want every tool on this trail in one purchase? The Launch Trail Bundle has all 12.

The part, the tool, the program and every number in this book (latch cover LC-5927) are a made-up example. The tool sidebars show ShopFloorOps tools, which I make and sell. Every chapter teaches the step itself, so you can use your own forms. New to a term? See the quality glossary.