“How can we ensure our products are designed to reach industrial maturity?” This question, posed by the Quality Director of a large multinational company during an AXSENS training course, reflects the concern of many companies worldwide.

APQP

The quality approach that has industrial maturity as its primary goal is Advanced Product Quality Planning (APQP).

“For decades, automotive companies have been using APQP to turn out very performant products. The automotive industry is far in advance of aerospace, which just started using APQP a few years ago (around 2011). The benefits of this proactive, preventive end-to-end quality approach are just starting to be felt,” explained Moumen El Fassi, the AXSENS expert on APQP.

APQP can be applied to any industry where quality assurance is at stake. The APQP methodology integrates several methods and tools: robust planning that encompasses all key elements, monitoring and control of all key elements on a regular basis, the powerful risk management tool FMEA (Failure Modes and Effects Analysis), and one of the major elements of the APQP, the Control Plan.

“These methods and tools are amazing, but they also require effort. So you need a team to put in place not only the methods and tools, but the whole process, including the organization to support it, otherwise you cannot reap all the benefits of APQP.”

AXSENS accompanies businesses in their assessing the benefits of APQP and deployment of APQP, while ensuring coherence with international standards and best practices from the shop floor. AXSENS seeks to adapt the approach to each team and each activity, so that each team member can have the confidence to continue the process for the long term.

The Quality Director who asked the initial question decided the APQP process and tools could be the solution he was looking for. AXSENS helped him to test the approach at his firm and then to deploy APQP into their management system. Moumen, with the help of other AXSENS senior consultants, spent one year developing APQP and its associated “Core Tools” within the company, while demonstrating the benefits of using the full process and equipping the teams to become autonomous.

The end result: A true “industrial maturity” culture deployed across all the company’s sites, ensuring a level of performance that all their customers appreciate to this day.

Would you like to stop firefighting, start anticipating and switch from a corrective mode to a preventive mode? Contact us to start studying the APQP approach for your organization.