Motors & Drives Information

Quality has been job 1 for top automakers for more than a decade, as Ford Motor Co., General Motors Corp. and DaimlerChrysler AG try to reduce outlays for warranties and improve customer satisfaction. Now those OEMs are making quality just as important for the component makers that supply auto parts.

Much of this effort is centered on APQP (Advanced Product Quality Planning), a process for documenting how suppliers design and deliver components. Software developers including Aras Corp. and Powerway Inc. have been rolling out applications to automate the gathering and distribution of that documentation.

The APQP process takes outsourcing beyond simply requiring a supplier to provide a component that matches a specification. It adds the monitoring of how and when a component is created and delivered to the OEM, thus speeding the supply chain and new-product introduction by ensuring that the OEM and supplier are working on the same schedules.

"Now, instead of delivering just to a specification, the OEM also tells [a supplier] how to design and tool up their factory," said Peter Schroer, chief technology officer at Aras, in Lawrence, Mass. "And they say, 'We're going to monitor you over three years so we know you are completing the project the way we want.' What's new is [the OEMs] are enforcing APQP."

Aras late last month began shipping its APQP Plus software, which automates the collection of APQP documents, provides a framework for managing APQP compliance projects and integrates with Aras' namesake PLM (product lifecycle management) software.

The new software includes templates for APQP and the Production Part Approval Process auto industry standard. An additional four applications in the suite enable users to manage production, sourcing, other quality issues and tooling. Together, these applications provide document management, engineering change management and cost accounting capabilities.

Indianapolis-based Powerway in March released Version 2.0 of its Powerway.com Web-based APQP software. The upgrade, which is being used by GM and DaimlerChrysler, features enhanced navigation capabilities, additional language support and a new activity log.

Freudenberg-NOK GP, which makes molded rubber components for automobiles, uses Aras' APQP Plus mainly for project management and design management, according to Tom Gill, director of CAE technology and support.

# posted by Medical Information : 3:43 AM