Run Advanced Product Quality Planning as timing-gated phases — feasibility sign-off, plan & define, product design, process design, validation and feedback — each gate with an owner, a target and actual date and a status, on a program dashboard that flags overdue gates. Then submit a document-backed PPAP package: 18 elements plus the Part Submission Warrant, approved to release for mass production. APQP outputs feed PPAP with no re-keying.
APQP runs a new part through timing-gated phases; its outputs become the PPAP package that releases the part for volume. New to the core tools? Read our guide, what is APQP & PPAP?
Advanced Product Quality Planning here is stage-gated, not one long form. The part moves through feasibility, plan & define, product design & development, process design & development, product & process validation and feedback & assessment — and each stage carries entry and exit criteria, an owner, a target date, an actual date and a status. A gate is explicit: it is open, in progress or closed, held by a named owner against the customer's timing chart, so a phase can never quietly be assumed complete.
The APQP dashboard is the program cockpit. Every open part appears with its current stage, percent complete, its owner and — most importantly — its overdue gates. A launch that is drifting shows up as a red overdue count long before the customer's part-submission date, so the quality head is managing the timing chart instead of discovering a missed gate at the review. It is the same live view a plant uses to run several new-part programs at once without a wall of spreadsheets.
The Production Part Approval Process is assembled as a document-backed package. It gathers the elements a customer expects — design records and drawings, engineering change docs, DFMEA and PFMEA, the process flow diagram, the control plan, MSA / Gauge R&R studies, dimensional results, material and performance test results, an initial process study, qualified-lab documentation, appearance approval, sample parts, checking aids and customer-specific requirements — and caps them with the Part Submission Warrant. Every element is a controlled document, versioned and carried through the AC / RJ / AD lifecycle, and the submission level is recorded per part, so the package is auditable rather than a loose folder of files.
APQP and PPAP are not two separate exercises. The DFMEA, PFMEA, process flow, control plan and MSA plan authored during the APQP gates — all built from the specification master — are the very elements a PPAP package needs. So they carry straight through: no re-typing, no divergence between the plan and the submission. When the package moves to Accepted and the PSW is approved, the part is released for mass production; a later change flows back through change management and, where required, triggers a PPAP re-submission.
Record the manufacturing-feasibility commitment and sign it off to open the APQP program — the first gate a new part must pass.
Plan & define, product design, process design, validation and feedback run as timing-gated phases with entry and exit criteria.
Each gate carries an owner, a target date, an actual date and a status, so a phase is never quietly assumed complete.
Every open part with its stage, percent complete and owner — the program cockpit for the plant's new-part launches.
Slipping gates surface as an overdue count before the customer's part-submission date, so timing is managed, not discovered.
Design records, FMEAs, process flow, control plan, MSA, dimensional and material results, initial SPC and more — one package.
The PSW summary sheet tops the package; once approved (AC), the part is released for mass production.
Every PPAP element is a controlled document, versioned and moved through the AC / RJ / AD approval lifecycle.
DFMEA/PFMEA, process flow, control plan and MSA plan carry straight from the gates into the package — no re-keying.
A timing chart in a spreadsheet drifts the moment a gate slips. For the bigger picture, read what is quality management software?
APQP (Advanced Product Quality Planning) is the phase-gated method you run before a part is made — feasibility sign-off, plan & define, product design & development, process design & development, product & process validation, and feedback & assessment. PPAP (Production Part Approval Process) is the document-backed submission package that proves the part can be made to specification at volume. The two are joined: the APQP outputs — DFMEA, PFMEA, process flow, control plan and MSA plan — become the elements of the PPAP package, so planning and approval share one set of records.
Each APQP stage has entry and exit criteria, an owner, a target date, an actual date and a status, so every gate is explicit rather than implied. The APQP program dashboard shows each open part with its current stage, percent complete, overdue gates and owner, so slippage is visible before it becomes a launch risk. Because the gates are dated and owned, the program is managed against the customer's timing chart, not a spreadsheet reconstructed the week before the audit.
A full PPAP package can carry up to 18 elements: design records and drawings, engineering change documents, DFMEA and PFMEA, the process flow diagram, the control plan, MSA / Gauge R&R studies, dimensional results, material and performance test results, an initial process study (SPC), qualified laboratory documentation, appearance approval, sample parts, checking aids, and customer-specific requirements — plus the Part Submission Warrant (PSW). Every element is a controlled document, versioned and carried through the AC / RJ / AD approval lifecycle, so the package is auditable rather than a loose folder of files.
The PSW is the summary sign-off sheet of a PPAP package — the single warrant that declares the part meets all requirements. When the package moves through the document lifecycle to Accepted (AC) and the PSW is approved, the part is released for mass production; a Rejected (RJ) package sends it back for correction. The PPAP dashboard tracks each part's PSW status and submission level.
PPAP defines submission levels that set how much of the package the customer requires to receive — from a warrant only, up to the full package with sample parts and complete supporting data. The required level is recorded per part and tracked on the PPAP dashboard, so you always submit exactly what that customer and that part demand.
No. Because the DFMEA, PFMEA, process flow, control plan and MSA plan are authored during APQP from the specification master, the same records are carried straight into the PPAP package as controlled documents. There is no re-typing between planning and submission, and a change to a core-tool record flows to the package it belongs to. Fast Quality runs cloud or on-premise for IATF 16949 and ISO 9001 manufacturers across India and worldwide.
Live demo of the APQP gates, the program dashboard, overdue-gate alerts and a document-backed PPAP package with PSW — on your own parts and standards. Cloud or on-premise, no generic slideshow.
