Advanced Quality Planning

Customer-supporting reference manuals on Advanced Quality Planning Control Plan Tools and Techniques... 

This chapter is primarily concerned with advanced quality planning and control tools used in the quality management systems. The basic tools were discussed in earlier chapters. 

One important difference between ISO 9000 and QS 9000 is that QS 9000 is not a voluntary standard. The auto companies require that all of their Tier 1 suppliers be certified to QS 9000. QS 9000 is more extensive than ISQ 9000. It requires additional quality system elements and it includes advanced quality planning. In addition, it requires that control and quality plans be developed. For example, QS 9000 requires the development of Failure Mode Effect Analysis (FMEA). The similarities and differences between ISO-9000 and QS 9000 are shown below in Table 13.3. 

DaimlerChrysler supplements these requirements with its own procedure for new-product introduction. DaimlerChrysler characterizes its quality efforts two ways — advance and current. DaimlerChrysler refers to efforts to anticipate problems as "Advance Quality Planning" (or AQP). As the name implies, the hope is to head off problems before they happen. Current quality efforts focus mostly on problems in assembly plants. They also address continuous improvement after a component is in production. Suppliers are continuously graded on their performance, and low performers are subject to corrective action, even if the parts they provide are "carryover" parts that have no design changes. 

As mentioned in the chapter Advanced Quality Planning , sample phases mainly determine the development activities in the automobile industry. The following figure shows the sequential process and the respective iterations in a spiral shape (Fig. 2.9) ... 

The standard requires systems to be in place to ensure management of appropriate activities during concept development, prototype, and production according to customer advanced product quality planning and control plan manual or project management manual. 

Product realization in the automotive industry is either called advanced product quality planning (APQP) or project management. In terms of their objectives there is no difference. In terms of the mechanics there may be some differences, depending on the methodologies employed by the organization. 

The standard requires the supplier to use tools and techniques identified in the customer reference manual on advanced product quality planning. 

When the analytical laboratory is not responsible for sampling, the quality management system often does not even take these weak links in the analytical process into account. Furthermore, if sample preparation (extraction, cleanup, etc.) has not been carried out carefully, even the most advanced, quality-controlled analytical instruments and sophisticated computer techniques cannot prevent the results of the analysis from being called into question. Finally, unless the interpretation and evaluation of results are underpinned by solid statistical data, the significance of these results is unclear, which in turn greatly undermines their merit. We therefore believe that quality control and quality assurance should involve all the steps of chemical analysis as an integral process, of which the validation of the analytical methods is merely one step, albeit an important one. In laboratory practice, quality criteria should address the rationality of the sampling plan, validation of methods, instruments and laboratory procedures, the reliability of identifications, the accuracy and precision of measured concentrations, and the comparability of laboratory results with relevant information produced earlier or elsewhere. 

Documentation should be subject to review, prior to its formal release. Such a review might assume a number of forms ranging from the evaluation of the docnment and collection of comments throngh to its inspection within formally convened review meetings. The reviewers shonld be identified in advance within the Validation Plan, the Project and Quality Plan, or the docnment management procedures. Many firms give staff guidance on how to decide the most appropriate reviewers for different documents. 

Are the activities for managing quality planned in advance for projects ... 

Automotive Industry Action Group (AIAG) (1994), Advanced Product Quality Planning and Control... 

The FMEA methodology is now extensively used in a variety of industries including semiconductor processing, food service, plastics, software and health care, where it is sometimes integrated into Advanced Product Quality Planning (APQP) to provide a primary design and process risk mitigation tool. 

Advance Product Quality Planning (APQP) is a framework of procedures and techniques used to develop quality products. APQP must be audited and registered under ISO/TS 16949... 

Today, advances in codes, computer speed, and avaii-abiUty of cross-section data make possible a calculational evaluaUon of a complicated piece of equipment including effects of adjacent objects, poisons, and changes in process parameters (e.g., concentration or normality). Thus it is imperative that all possible steps be taken to ensure the correctness of the calculational result. For this reason a Quality Plan for the Nuclear Safe Calculational Program was written in 1977 and is currently being implemented. The plan contains some items specific to computer calculations, but the general requirements of documentation, validation, and application are relevant to any calculational method. 

ISO TS 16949 can be interpreted differently for the individual cases of application. This is why automobile manufacturers have since defined standards in order to guarantee quality in product development. Later, the American manufacturers such as Ford, GM or Chrysler met at AIAG to define joint requirements for quality management. In Germany, similar standards and requirements were developed under the umbrella of VDA. The aim was to define processes for the development as well as planned advanced product quality improvement measures, APQP (advanced product quality planning according to AIAG). 

Fig. 2.5 Advanced product quality planning (Reference APQP AIAG [9] 4th Edition)...

Orifice plates. Either the concentric orifice, eccentric orifice, or segmented orifice-type. Choice depends on the quality of the fluid handled. Venturi tubes. These consist of a well-rounded convergent section at the entrance, a throat of constant diameter, and a divergent section. Their accuracy is high however, installation, unless planned for in advance, is very difficult in the field. 

Advanced product qualify planning and control plan reference manual ANFIA evaluation of quality systems - checklist ANFIA evaluation of quality systems - guidelines for use Benchmarking, Sylvia Coding (Gower, 1998)... 

Each area of operation should be audited periodically, usually once every twelve months. However, new areas may be audited on a more frequent basis. Ideally, they are planned mid-way between external audits. This process should be planned well in advance and written down in the Quality Manual as a structured audit programme, covering both the timing and the coverage of the audit process. The audit programme can be of two types, either ... 

Vale C, Rosa-Santos F, Walter C et al (2007) Advanced observation devices for chemical monitoring of water quality. In 1st Riskbase Thematic Workshop, Monitoring and Assessment of River Pollutants a step towards the implementation of risk based management plans. Oral presentation, Lisbon, May 17-18... 

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