We don't charge either but I have inquired of some of our customers and they say that "SOME DO" charge... So gulible me went and gathered up information on how much the charge "should be" just to recover the Labor & Time input expense of preparing all those customer/plant specific forms - Layouts,
Fmea's, Process plans design/process validations, Material, Heat treat, Plating, Painting certifications, cp/cpk studies "life of product" record keeping tracking etc.
What I came up with was right at 150.00 per part.. when we exceeded 300 reports in a single year and approached our customers Purchasing departments concerning the recovery of these costs they politely told us that the information was very good and quite understandable BUT it was "in their view" (and would remain) our cost of doing business. We even complete Second level suppliers information at no charge as a 3rd level subcontractor (their view was the same as our other customers "if you don't supply it free of charge we'll simply opt to find a supplier that will..
Goes to show just how far "customer satisfaction" can be pushed. Sad part is that many times the QA department demands added results without explaination to the purchaseing depts concerning what labor or actions are involved in complying with the request.
I won't even go into the differences in Prepration criteria and return validation communications form plant to plant within the same corporations.
Sorry if this sounds like sour grapes - I know there is a VALID place for added attention in some products (medical Or Nasa products for instance) but personal expierence has show me that It's possible there are more bad things that occur with PPA's than good ones. - All those pieces of signed paper -- all too often do not make the actual product any better than it would have been without them.