Consistency in APQP
APQP processes incorporating standard forms such as Part Submission Warrants, Control Plans, PFMEA, DFMEA, and Dimensional Inspection Reports have not changed since their inception. The robustness of APQP is so apparent that many other industries, especially electrical, industrial, agriculture, and, increasingly, aerospace industries, have started to use the formats for their product development.
Quality Processes in Large and Small Factories
There are a few expensive systems that are used by billion-dollar integrators and OEMs. However, for small factories, there are few attempts to digitize and have affordable software programs to manage part history, manage life cycles, and have controlled data and forms related to part development and production.
While large corporations struggle with APQP team members such as engineers, purchasing, sales, and production team members being in different time zones and locations, small manufacturers struggle with having proper resources to manage this important paperwork efficiently. They lack dedicated project engineers to make sure drawings are controlled and that production staff have access to them. They lack the resources to store the latest versions of the Control Plan and other quality forms and make them available to sales, quality, tooling, and maintenance staff. Most importantly, they lack the ability to access these forms and information where they are needed most – in metrology labs, on tooling floors, and for shift leads and production operators.
Small manufacturers find it difficult to justify spending large sums of money on legacy APQP and QMS software and hence live with manual and redundant systems. This, in turn, often leads to productivity issues on their most scant resources – their engineers!
Solutions for Quality Teams at Small Factories
MESH Works APQP and QMS modules allow small manufacturers to have a full part history with controlled drawings as well as obsolete ones available for engineers to track and review anytime on the floor, in the office, at a tool shop, or in front of customers or suppliers. MESH also makes it easy to create quality paperwork and forms efficiently and store the latest versions to avoid any big issues using wrong data. The solution allows quality reporting from the floor to advise supervisors or quality managers across the street or in a corporate office. All production incidents are reported using an easy-to-use quality app, and they are stored in part files for future lessons learned.
MESH also has pre-defined quality defect types process information for a variety of processes such as High-Pressure Die-Casting, Open Die Forgings, Close Die forgings, plastic injection molding, rubber molding, stamping, and Green Sand and other forms of Iron and Steel castings. MESH is preconfigured for many of these manufacturers to use right out of the box.
Contact MESH to see how we can help your scarce engineering, quality, and tooling resources to work more efficiently. The future is collaboratively managing your APQP to scale and leverage your business and growth using this scanty resource.