Driving Quality: Navigating APQP/CP Deployment in Automotive Supply Chains

Welcome to another episode of our Intertek’s Assurance in Action podcast!
In this episode, our expert, Carmine Liuzzi discusses the challenges and best practices for effective Advanced Product Quality Planning and Control Plan (CP) deployment in automotive supply organizations. Stream our podcast now to learn more!

Speaker:
Carmine Liuzzi- Principal Consultant & Industry Leader with Learning Academy Services at Intertek 

For more information on this topic, contact us at business.assurance@intertek.com or visit our website to learn more about The Importance of APQP/CP in the Automotive Industry (intertek.com).  

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Transcript

 Refaya Priya  Intertek   0:10
 Welcome to another episode of our Intertek’s Assurance in Action podcast!

My name is Refaya Priya, Global Social Media Marketing Manager for Business Assurance with Intertek, and I’ll be your host for today.

Today, I am sitting with Carmine Liuzzi, Principal Consultant & Industry Leader with Learning Academy Services at Intertek. Carmine is an Industry Leader with over 30 years of experience. His areas of specialty include ISO standards, as well as a wide range of process improvement techniques and tools such as Lean and Kaizen. He is an Exemplar Global certified Lead Auditor for Quality and Environmental Management Systems, with expertise in automotive standards, including IATF 16949 and Quality Core Tools.

Today, we'll be discussing the challenges and best practices for effective Advanced Product Quality Planning and Control Plan (CP) deployment in automotive supply organizations. Welcome, Carmine!

 Carmine Liuzzi  Intertek   1:21
 Thank you for having me.
 It's a pleasure to be here.


 Refaya Priya  Intertek   1:24
 To keep things off, let's dive into the basics.
 Can you explain what APQP and CP are and why are they crucial in the automotive industry?


 Carmine Liuzzi  Intertek   1:36
 Well, I'll the intent of advanced product quality planning or APQP is to proactively assess and mitigate risk factors which could impact a product launch.
 APQP is a structured approach to define and implement the tasks and actions necessary to provide confidence to both the supply and customer organizations that they're requirements will be consistently met.

 The goal of product quality planning is to facilitate communications within all parties involved in the process and ensure the necessary steps to complete the project on schedule and on budget. Effective quality planning requires all levels of the supply organization, including the top management, are involved and committed to this effort.
 The necessary resources can then be focused on ensuring satisfaction of customer requirements. APQP also promotes early identification of any required changes apply.
 Lessons learned from previous experience and automotive supply organizations should begin utilizing the newly issued APQP and Control plan reference manuals as conformance with the methodology documented in these manuals will be mandatory for suppliers to Ford, General Motors and Stellantis. Other OEMs may choose to utilize these revised documents as well, or they may have similar requirements for their suppliers. Each supply organization should work closely with their customers to determine the process requirements for advanced product quality planning. 

APQP process should be viewed as a governance framework for their individual organizations. Supply organizations should be applying the plan. Do check act cycle of continual improvement to incorporate the lessons learned at each phase of the APQP process. One of the key outputs of the APQP process are control plans for each phase of the program development cycle control plans are intended to be living documents regularly updated with continual improvements and recognized best practice sharing based on an organization's experience.

 Refaya Priya  Intertek   3:57
 Thank you, Carmine.
 So my next question for you would be, what are some common challenges that automotive supply organizations face when deploying APQP/CP?


 Carmine Liuzzi  Intertek   4:10
 Control plans continue to be an ongoing point of audit nonconformities during IATF 16949 audits, control plans are consistently cited as the fourth most frequent reason for major nonconformities, and the third most frequent reason for minor nonconformities as identified by the Automotive Oversight Bureau.

 As of April 1st, 2024, specifically control plans were established do not accurately define the process they are intended to control or when defined, are not being followed as documented with regard to the overall APQP process, too often in the past, organizations focused on meeting a predetermined schedule rather than ensuring the quality of execution of the required tasks and the effectiveness of the overall process.
 The process itself required a lessons learned has to be completed.
 However, many organizations usually scheduled this activity late in a program or project once it had been completed. The resulting information captured was incomplete because details were not remembered or missing entirely due to team members leaving the project for other assignments.

The focus of the process should be on problem prevention problem. Prevention is driven by simultaneous engineering conducted by product and manufacturing process engineering teams working concurrently supplying organization should also strongly consider passing along some or all of these requirements to their supply chain and not simply to their direct suppliers in order to mitigate the potential risks to themselves, which could have a negative impact on their ability to meet the OEM requirements, poor or inconsistent, lower tier supplier performance has been an ongoing problem in the industry.

 Refaya Priya  Intertek   6:10
 Those are some great insights. Thank you, Carmine.
 So how can organizations overcome them and effectively deploy APQP/CP?


 Carmine Liuzzi  Intertek   6:20
 Well, the revisions to the APQP and control plan manuals provide an opportunity for organizations to evaluate their current quality planning activities to determine the effectiveness and efficiency of their processes. We would suggest attaining copies of the manuals and review them carefully to fully understand the new requirements.

The next step would be to conduct a gap assessment of your current process against these new requirements, leveraging the well functioning portions of their current process.
 And then develop action plans to close the identified gaps to finding meaningful metrics to track the effectiveness and efficiency of the process or critical to every process in addition to the APQP process.

 Next, they should determine and implementation strategy to roll out the new APQP process within the organization and to ensure lessons learned are captured at each stage of the process, not just at the end. Applying the plan, do check act cycle of continual improvement and using that mindset and being relentless and challenging themselves for process and product improvements, even if they're only incremental in nature.

 Refaya Priya  Intertek   7:39
 Thank you for sharing their suggestions. Now let's let's shift gears and discuss best practices.
 What are some key strategies for successful APQP CP deployment?


 Carmine Liuzzi  Intertek   7:54
 Well, the I think you reprocess should be applied as a risk mitigation strategy.
 It begins with the leadership of an organization recognizing the potential benefits of adhering to a disciplined methodology. Which leverages the lessons learned from past programs and manufacturing experience, conducting comprehensive risk assessments, including design and process FME, AAS development of control plans and safe launch programs are all aimed at preventing problems prior to full scale production.
 Development of an organized management of change process which identifies and assesses the inherent risks associated with any change prior to an implementation is a key component of this process.

 Adopting this approach will pay dividends in 

·         Increased efficiencies and reduction in costs, rework, reprocessing, inspections, warranty claims. All of these increase in organizations costs and therefore reduce their profitability and potentially have a negative impact on customer satisfaction.
 Properly implemented, applying lessons learned the APQP process can significantly reduce time to market and reduce the cost of poor quality.

·         It also provides for a common vocabulary which increases mutual understanding of the product and process requirements within and among the customer and the supply organizations involved in the process.

·         Early detection and management of risks should enable organizations to identify, assess and establish the necessary to controls to mitigate or eliminate the risks in a proactive manner and enhancing the organization's ability to respond to customer demands. In addition, utilizing the reverse FMEA process to identify potential opportunities for mistake proofing to further ensure the robustness of the manufacturing processes. 

·         Identifying key process indicators to ensure processes operate under established controlled conditions and provide confidence to the customer, their needs and expectations will be consistently met. The product provider will meet all the great performance criteria and arrive when needed, utilizing meaningful a PQP metrics will provide the leadership of the supply organization with a clear picture of the capabilities of the APQP process.

 Refaya Priya  Intertek   10:31
 Thank you for sharing those best practices, Carmine.
 Uh, before we wrap up, do you have any final thoughts or recommendations for our listeners?


 Carmine Liuzzi  Intertek   10:40
 Well, organizations should begin developing their transition plans now.
 General Motors has established a September 1st, 2024 deadline for organizations to meet the new APQP and control plan requirements. Ford Stellantis have not defined deadlines as yet. However, they have indicated the September time frame is a reasonable goal.
 

Supplier organizations have been requesting clarifications and standardizations of the APQP process for some time now. These manuals are the fulfillment of those requests.
 Organizations who fully embrace the intent of the new revisions to the APQP and control plan manuals will realize benefits in the effectiveness and efficiency of their product product planning processes.

 Refaya Priya  Intertek   11:27
 Thank you, Carmine, for joining us today and sharing your expertise on this important topic.
 That concludes today's episode of navigating APQP/CP deployment in automotive supply chains.
 

To our listeners, we hope you found the discussion insightful. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to us via email at business.assurance@intertek.com, or you could also visit our website to learn more about The Importance of APQP/CP in the Automotive Industry (intertek.com). The link will be provided in the description box below.
 

Be sure to tune in next time for more conversations on the latest trends in the automotive industry. Thank you, Carmine, for joining us today and thank you to our listeners for tuning in and have a wonderful day.