Critical Characteristics/Dimensions of PCBAs

[QLearning]

Many people left the automotive industry and went into other industries bringing these APQP concepts with them. Technically, these requirements should have been spelled out in the contract between you and your customer. Whether you push back on this "ask" depends on whether you have the leverage to do so. If you are a small fish in a big pond, you will probably want to comply.

Thanks again for your reply. Yes, we will be preparing control plans going forward for critical characteristics called out on drawings from now on. Just wanted to know if this was a "hard" requirement from a standard, or just something the customer wants.

 

[Johnnymo62]

In my experience it's the control plan that comes first. Aren't you using control plans whether or not there is a special characteristic?

 

[Mike S.]

Have a peek at AS9100 8.1.f and 8.4.3.h and 8.5.1.k

Just because critical characteristics are called out on the drawing does not by itself mean you need to "submit them" formally as part of your FAIR - if the customer wanted this they should have clearly specified such as part of their PO and requirements package. You may already have the controls in place as part of your normal operation, but documenting them for the customer may take time that you should be charging for.

 

[Jim Wynne]

I'm not seeing "control plan" defined here. Is it an AIAG-style control plan that's being requested?

 

[Cari Spears]

Johnnymo62 - thanks for your reply. It came up as we were preparing an AS9102 FAIR for the assembly. The customer wanted the control plans to the critical characteristics that were identified on the assembly drawing to be included in our FAIR package. "...your customer is asking for it and its on the drawing your company agreed to use." So, this was the point of my question. We saw the critical characteristics called out on the drawing, but where does it say that for every critical characteristic you need to have a control plan? FYI, we will be preparing control plans from now on, whenever to we see a critical characteristic.

We have at least two aerospace customers that use the term "control plan", when what they are asking for is what we typically call our inspection plan - which is our Tool Inspection Record. Rather than what we usually do, which is prepare the TIR right after the manufacturing release and kick off meeting, we have to prepare the TIR during the design phases to ensure we report on all of the super important features of the tool.

 

[outdoorsNW]

If the request for a control plan, either AIAG style or simply an inspection plan of some type, for marked critical characteristics not somewhere in the procurement documentation, then it is an added requirement not in the contract. There is no hard requirement in AS9100 or AS9102.

Having worked in a job shop, often there is no control plan, only work instructions that specify the needed controls and inspections. With complex products, often an AIAG style control plan ends up mostly referring to other documents. If all the control plan does is refer to other documents, why bother?

 

[Mike S.]

If the request for a control plan, either AIAG style or simply an inspection plan of some type, for marked critical characteristics not somewhere in the procurement documentation, then it is an added requirement not in the contract. There is no hard requirement in AS9100 or AS9102.

Having worked in a job shop, often there is no control plan, only work instructions that specify the needed controls and inspections. With complex products, often an AIAG style control plan ends up mostly referring to other documents. If all the control plan does is refer to other documents, why bother?

To help justify the job of a SQE somewhere?