Managing How PPAP Requirements are Communicated in the Manufacturing Process and to Suppliers

PeebsJD

Registered
I am looking for any information or examples on any software or methods that others are using to manage PPAP requirements in their manufacturing process.

Currently at my company we manufacture steel fabricated parts and assemblies for customers that require PPAPs. We are running into issues with how to best "flag" parts that need PPAPs on them. Our current production management software does not seem to have a simple and reliable way to communicate PPAP requirements without extensive manual data correction after the fact. The processes for PPAP requirements that get communicated to our suppliers varies from how we deal with them in our internal fabrication department.

Any information on how others are managing this within their manufacturing and procurement process would be greatly appreciated.
 

Tagin

Trusted Information Resource
We are running into issues with how to best "flag" parts that need PPAPs on them.

Can the produced part have a bill of materials, where one of the components in the BOM is a PPAP part number? Each PPAP could get assigned to a unique part number, so that the BOM will reference the correct PPAP.
 

Howard Atkins

Forum Administrator
Leader
Admin
Do you perform APQP on all products or only those with PPAP?
How do you manage production, are all parts traeted the same or only those with "PPAP" controlled?
 

PeebsJD

Registered
Can the produced part have a bill of materials, where one of the components in the BOM is a PPAP part number? Each PPAP could get assigned to a unique part number, so that the BOM will reference the correct PPAP.

WE have looked into possibly doing something along those lines but then the issue became how to tell the system whether or not it needed to add the PPAP to the part number. Our goal is to have the system be able to tell if a part needs a PPAP based on a item value like PPAP REQ Y/N and then process the part accordingly. Understandably it would be hard to offer advice without having a knowledge of the same production management software we use so if you have any suggestions for ways to manage PPAP outside of the system with some sort of dedicated software etc. that would also be helpful.
 

PeebsJD

Registered
Do you perform APQP on all products or only those with PPAP?
How do you manage production, are all parts traeted the same or only those with "PPAP" controlled?

Currently we do not really have a effective APQP process that we follow. We typically supply product to our customers in small volume and with short requested lead times so management made the decision not to invest in the upfront rigid APQP process because they did not see the value in it.

Currently parts that are going to be sourced externally go through a purchasing process that involves marking the individual parts on the purchase order with a PPAP requirement note. What we want to eliminate here is the purchaser having to manually determine and mark the PO. Our company is looking to progress with an automated purchasing process based on inventory and need. However, with that process the purchaser would have to go back and manually edit the PO which would defeat the purpose of it being automated.

For internally fabricated parts we currently add PPAP operations within the individual parts shop orders manually. Similarly to external parts we are having trouble with having this work in the automated process without going in after the fact and adding them in.

I am looking for some insight from anyone who has a process where PPAPs can automatically be added by the system. Or is the nature of PPAPs just mean that they will always have to be handled manually on a case by case basis.
 

Hanma195

Registered
Currently we do not really have a effective APQP process that we follow. We typically supply product to our customers in small volume and with short requested lead times so management made the decision not to invest in the upfront rigid APQP process because they did not see the value in it.

Currently parts that are going to be sourced externally go through a purchasing process that involves marking the individual parts on the purchase order with a PPAP requirement note. What we want to eliminate here is the purchaser having to manually determine and mark the PO. Our company is looking to progress with an automated purchasing process based on inventory and need. However, with that process the purchaser would have to go back and manually edit the PO which would defeat the purpose of it being automated.

For internally fabricated parts we currently add PPAP operations within the individual parts shop orders manually. Similarly to external parts we are having trouble with having this work in the automated process without going in after the fact and adding them in.

I am looking for some insight from anyone who has a process where PPAPs can automatically be added by the system. Or is the nature of PPAPs just mean that they will always have to be handled manually on a case by case basis.

One possible way to automate the "check box" could be by cost of the product. Set the lower limit of $X as the default. Now, that would require that cost is entered into your system by a certain time otherwise nothing will be flagged as PPAP required. Also, it means that the person inputting the cost cannot just put a generic cost as a place holder (i.e. $0.01) until everything is finalized. Not a perfect solution, but something that can be integrated into your ERP system fairly easily and quickly.
 
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