I am completing some control plans for a new assembly for a new Customer. My question is: What is meant for the "characteristic classsification" column?

I am completing some control plans for a new assembly for a new Customer. My question is: What is meant for the "characteristic classsification" column?

Welcome to the Cove Domingo.

I have moved your post to the FMEA and Control Plan thread where I think it will get many more responses. In the meantime, look at the similar threads listed at the bottom of this page. There are some great discussions on Control Plans and what information to put in the columns.

Dave

I am completing some control plans for a new assembly for a new Customer. My question is: What is meant for the "characteristic classsification" column?

There are two types of characteristics: Process and Part. The former pertains to characteristics of the process which must be controlled; "feeds and speeds," as they say. The latter has to do with characteristics of the part--dimensional, appearance, e.g.--that must be controlled. In general, there should be process characteristics listed for each part characteristic, the idea being that it's a process control plan, and not an inspection plan.

Historically, this was intended to note KPC (product) or KCC (process) for GM, and Critical (FMVSS safety) or Significant (SPC) for Ford.

So "Characteristic Classification" is similar to if not identical to clasifying dimentions as "Critical" "Improtant" or "A, B, or C" - Correct?

Yes. The control method and frequency should also be appropriate to the classification.

All,

Many thanks! I can see why my friend highly recommended this site!:applause:

Hi,
We were audited by an Internal Auditor and one of her findings are the following:
There is no documented control plan at different product level / material level to identify the characteristics and how to verify the control method. This is against in ISO/TS16949 Quality Management System Clause 7.5.1.1. My concern is that what could be the evidence that I need to show with the auditor? Do I have to create a procedure on how to create a control plan? Please advise.
Best regards,
Raffy:cool:

As I know, it's "Critical","Major" and "Minor".or "A""B""C",which is classed by the importance and failure severity of the characteristic.

Hi,
We were audited by an Internal Auditor and one of her findings are the following:
There is no documented control plan at different product level / material level to identify the characteristics and how to verify the control method. This is against in ISO/TS16949 Quality Management System Clause 7.5.1.1. My concern is that what could be the evidence that I need to show with the auditor? Do I have to create a procedure on how to create a control plan? Please advise.
Best regards,
Raffy:cool:

It sounds like what the auditor is questioning is the absence of a control plan, not the need to document how to create one, although that might also be an issue. If there was a situation wherein a control plan should have been created but wasn't, then you need to find out why it wasn't created, and how you can make sure that control plans are created in the future. This probably means that there should be a documented procedure, along with the training needed to support it.

Basically we have a Control plan Generation Procedure based from APQP-CP Reference Manual. We have a generic control plan for all models of the product.
What I do think the concern of the auditor is how do we determine the assignment of special characteristics? What are special charcteristics? Is this characteristics mean it will affect fit, function and safety? Please advise and confirm.
Thank you very much.
Best regards,
Raffy

Basically we have a Control plan Generation Procedure based from APQP-CP Reference Manual. We have a generic control plan for all models of the product.
What I do think the concern of the auditor is how do we determine the assignment of special characteristics? What are special charcteristics? Is this characteristics mean it will affect fit, function and safety? Please advise and confirm.
Thank you very much.
Best regards,
Raffy

A Special Characteristic (one that requires process control such as SPC) is one that passes both tests below:

It must affect Fit, Form, Function or Safety, and
Must benefit from the rduction of variation around a Target value

This should be a joint decision between you and your customer.