Control Plans - How Many are Needed? A control plan for every part number?

[Rosana]

I am working with the Control Plan

I found in my company that they are using the Form I have attached. They took this form from the Advanced Product Quality Planning and Control Plan (APQP). In TS 16949:2002, Annex A, it says that I have to have the following items too:
* Customer information (what information do I have to write?)
* Process Parameter (what does this refer to?)
* Process-related special characteristics (what does this refer to?)
* Error proofing (what does this refer to?)
* Corrective Action (what does this refer to?)

The Design Department has only a few control plans. Do we need to prepare the control plans for every part number? or Do we need to prepare a control plan for all the part numbers we design after we implement?

Is it necessary to have the control plan for ALL the part numbers? or Can we prepare a control plan for each family of product we make?

Thanks

Rosana

 

[Rosana]

oops

I am sorry here is the file.

Rosana

 

[Bill Ryan - 2007]

Is it necessary to have the control plan for ALL the part numbers? or Can we prepare a control plan for each family of product we make?

Yes, you can use a single Control Plan for a family of parts if it makes sense to do. You should list each P/N involved in the heading and their respective engineering levels. This will "grow" your header but since you are in Excel, that shouldn't be much trouble.

A "Process Characteristic" can a setting on a machine such as your "Tandem Press" (Op. step #2). Do you have pressure settings, hydraulic settings, etc.? These are the types of things looked for in that column of the CP.

A "Process Related Special Characteristic" can be looked at in, at least, two ways, IMO. If there is something in your process which could cause injury to an operator or cause major line down time (which could affect delivery) they should be so signified in the CP. I am not able to designate "Process Characteristics" as "Special" with my software, but to me it's much more important that is addressed appropriately than it is to have some symbol show up on a form. To date I have had no issues with my Registrar.

I address "Error proofing" with any "Poke-Yokes" I have in place - whether in-line or at an inspection step. It gets addressed in the "Evaluation/Measurement Technique" column.

I take care of the "Corrective Action" by referencing our "NCM procedure" and "Quality Concern" procedure (which deals with root cause analysis and implementing corrective actions). Basically, ask yourself what you do when you DETECT the Product or Process characteristic as being out of specification and document it in the "Reaction Plan" column.

As far as "Customer Information" the only information I have ever been required to have is the customer part number and its engineering level. You might be better off asking your customer(s) what this means or perhaps someone else will give you a more succint definition.

One observation of your form - it seems that you have combined several failure modes together in the "Product Characteristic" column. Maybe that works but I would think you should be addressing each failure mode as a separate entity. Also a "Process Characteristic" should have its own line as you control a process parameter differently than a product characteristic. Please understand, I know it's very easy to "rip apart" someone else's work and I'm not trying to do that with the above comments. My software has me in a very "structured" approach and now that I have been using that approach for a few years it is second nature to me.

Hope I've helped some. I'm sure you'll get other responses.

Bill

 

[Rios oxnard qe]

Rosana,

One thing we did at my previous QS9000 company was add a sequence table to the last page of the Flow Chart and Control Plan when dealing with parts from the same family. We did not have to create a control plan for each part no. This was well accepted from our registrar. I just got through an ISO supplier audit and recommended the same thing. Although they used one Control Plan to document the process for our parts and other customers as well which made it very confusing. They will now use a separate control plan to document our parts.

 

[vincee]

Yes, you can use a single Control Plan for a family of parts if it makes sense to do. You should list each P/N involved in the heading and their respective engineering levels. This will "grow" your header but since you are in Excel, that shouldn't be much trouble.

A "Process Characteristic" can a setting on a machine such as your "Tandem Press" (Op. step #2). Do you have pressure settings, hydraulic settings, etc.? These are the types of things looked for in that column of the CP.

A "Process Related Special Characteristic" can be looked at in, at least, two ways, IMO. If there is something in your process which could cause injury to an operator or cause major line down time (which could affect delivery) they should be so signified in the CP. I am not able to designate "Process Characteristics" as "Special" with my software, but to me it's much more important that is addressed appropriately than it is to have some symbol show up on a form. To date I have had no issues with my Registrar.

I address "Error proofing" with any "Poke-Yokes" I have in place - whether in-line or at an inspection step. It gets addressed in the "Evaluation/Measurement Technique" column.

I take care of the "Corrective Action" by referencing our "NCM procedure" and "Quality Concern" procedure (which deals with root cause analysis and implementing corrective actions). Basically, ask yourself what you do when you DETECT the Product or Process characteristic as being out of specification and document it in the "Reaction Plan" column.

As far as "Customer Information" the only information I have ever been required to have is the customer part number and its engineering level. You might be better off asking your customer(s) what this means or perhaps someone else will give you a more succint definition.

One observation of your form - it seems that you have combined several failure modes together in the "Product Characteristic" column. Maybe that works but I would think you should be addressing each failure mode as a separate entity. Also a "Process Characteristic" should have its own line as you control a process parameter differently than a product characteristic. Please understand, I know it's very easy to "rip apart" someone else's work and I'm not trying to do that with the above comments. My software has me in a very "structured" approach and now that I have been using that approach for a few years it is second nature to me.

Hope I've helped some. I'm sure you'll get other responses.

Bill

Hi All, this came up again, i.e., Family Based/ generic CP's as we all know how cumbersome it can be where you thousands of part numbers...are there any examples with your recommendations?
Thanks, Vince

 

[vincee]

Hi All, this came up again, i.e., Family Based/ generic CP's as we all know how cumbersome it can be where you hundreds of part numbers...are there any examples with your recommendations?
Thanks, Vince

 

[Mark Paul]

Are Family C-Plans Still Valid per ISO or AIAG companies?