Does this sound familiar?

• Production readiness is determined early, but Advanced Product Quality Planning (APQP) is not consistent: Tasks, milestones, maturity levels, and documentation are scattered, so while projects run, the assurance is difficult to maintain.
• Customer-specific OEM requirements are added and change, while different standards are used internally: Without a clear structure, APQP becomes a coordination loop, not a control instrument.
• Gate reviews and approvals exist organizationally, but are not properly documented: It is not always clear whether the prerequisites are actually met and which documentation is currently valid.
• FMEA, production control plans, and other methods run in parallel: Risks are analyzed, test steps are planned, documents are created, but the connection within the project context is missing, resulting in incomplete maturity level assurance.
• Project transparency is limited: Deadlines, dependencies, and resources are managed in Gantt charts, while quality documentation and maturity levels are stored elsewhere, which slows down decision-making.

This should be achieved through a robust process

• An APQP-compliant project structure according to AIAG and VDA: All phases must be mapped, from project initiation through product and process development to validation and series production release.
• Maturity level assurance as a core principle: Quality and release levels must be systematically monitored, with gate reviews requiring clear criteria, status logic, and documentation.
• Flexible mapping of customer-specific requirements: OEM requirements and internal standards must be translatable into a uniform project architecture without reinventing the wheel for each project.
• Transparent planning and control: Milestones, dependencies, and tasks must be visible, with responsibilities clearly assigned along the supply chain.
• Comprehensive documentation: Evidence must be centrally available within the project context and archived in an audit-proof manner to ensure that audit and customer requirements can be met at any time.

Coverage in QS1

• Digitizes and structures APQP by enabling the creation of standards-compliant project plans that map all APQP phases according to AIAG and VDA and can be flexibly adapted to customer-specific requirements.
• Supports individual project structures, sub-projects, and interconnected process chains, ensuring consistent mapping of OEM, Tier, and internal standards.
• Focuses on maturity level assurance by systematically monitoring quality and release stages and clearly managing milestone logic, gate reviews, and/or releases.
• Provides integrated Gantt charts that create transparency regarding maturity levels, milestones, and assurance measures, supporting on-time management up to series production readiness.
• Links quality methods within the project context, utilizing FMEA and the production control plan as integrated building blocks for assurance, enabling the interaction of risks, inspection steps, and releases.
• Supports efficient collaboration through clear task allocation along the supply chain and complements project management with integrated resource management, creating planning certainty in complex development projects.
• Ensures traceability through consistent documentation, with document management supporting the central storage and versioning of project evidence.

Your result: APQP, which not only documents but also controls, with clear maturity level assurance, reliable gate reviews, structured fulfillment of OEM requirements, transparent project tracking and auditable documentation up to secure series release and PPAP preparation.

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