Customer Engineering Approval in PPAP

In manufacturing industry, products should meet the customer requirements. Then and then only manufacturer get business. To check this criterion one important process is applied, which we called as Production Part Approval Process (PPAP). Customer Engineering Approval is one of the key elements of PPAP documentation.

In this article, we will see everything about customer engineering approval.

Let’s dive in…..

What is Customer Engineering Approval?

Customer Engineering Approval is one step in PPAP documentation process which ensures that every engineering change affecting product and process should be fully reviewed and approved by the customer.

It shows that your engineering change is align with customer need and expectation, specification, functional and regulatory requirements.

This is a formal document or acknowledgement from the customer that engineering change you made is accepted. This approval should be taken before parts are manufactured and supplied.

Why is Customer Engineering Approval Important?

There are many factors shows us that why we should take customer engineering approval such as,

Meet Compliance: If you have a customer approval then your product is more capable to meet customer design and functional requirements.

Avoid Risk: Approval from customer leads to acceptance of new change and there is no chance of rejection and non-conformity in production and after delivery on customer line.

Improve collaboration: Approval process build a strong relation and effective communication with customer.

Cost benefits: Do the modification early and take customer approval will avoid costly redesigning and production delays in manufacturing.

Considering above factors it is always important to follow customer approval process and documentation.

When is Customer Engineering Approval Required?

We already seen in Engineering Change Documentation article that there are many ways where we do engineering change. But there are some common engineering changes where customer approval is must. Such as,

1. Design Changes: Modifications in existing design, for example dimensional modification or material change.
2. Process Changes: If there are a manufacturing process change that includes process flow change, tooling or gages modification or location.
3. New Product Development: Entirely new part needs to develop required a customer approval prior to start the change.
4. Regulatory Compliance: Changes driven by updated industry or safety standards.

Steps for Customer Engineering Approval in PPAP (How)

1. Identify the Change

You should identify correct design or process change. Document the change with clear and detail description to avoid any misunderstanding.

2. Prepare Authorize Engineering Change Document

Base on preliminary change content, create an Engineering Change Request (ECR) or Engineering Change Note (ECN).

This reports have all proposed modifications including action plan and analysis. Also attached related design records (Drawings), specification sheets and supporting documents.

3. Conduct Internal review

Review this proposed change with cross-functional team, including Quality, Production, and Engineering.

Validate change impact and their feasibility. If it found ok then proceed to next step.

4. Submit to customer

Customer evaluation is must for such change. Send all relevant documents to customer for evaluation. These documents and change will be evaluated by customer’s engineering team.

You should include major highlights such as what we are going to achieved after this change implementation. For example, improved performance, cost reductions or meet compliances.

5. Customer Review and Feedback

Customer’s engineering team will review all details and may request additional data. Which can be the simulation results, or prototypes of the change.

You should support customer quickly to provide such data to fasten the approval process.

6. Obtain Approval

Once customer agrees and accept the change, immediately take written confirmation or approval from customer.

This approval should have a customer authorized persons signature and date.

File this approval as a part of PPAP documentation. Later you need to submit this PPAP package to customer.

Customer Engineering Approval in the Context of PPAP

In PPAP document structure, Customer Approval is majorly linked to other elements. After any change there are other PPAP documents affected, such as:

• Design Records modify and update with latest change and approval.
• Process Flow Diagrams and Control Plans updates to latest modification in manufacturing processes.
• Dimensional and Functional Results always have a latest dimensional and functional results to verify with approved design.

This approval process ensures that all other documents are validated at every stage of design and development.

Challenges in approval process

Organizations are facing many challenges in their approval process, such as:

1. Delayed Approvals:
2. Lack of communication
3. Rejection of change

You can overcome these challenges by following best practices and techniques, which are listed below.

Best Practices followed in Customer Engineering Approval

1. Early customer Involvement: To avoid delays in approval process it is always better to involve customer engineering team early in change process.
2. Detailed Complete Documentation: Submit complete documentation and information to customer to have a smooth approval.
3. Effective Communication: Have a open and transparent communication with customer to build trust and clarity.
4. Regular Updates: Same transparent information pass to stakeholder’s time to time. They should inform about status and progress of your change approval.
5. Leverage Technology: In digital era, use of digital tools like PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) system software improves process and manage engineering changes effectively.

Conclusion

Customer Engineering Approval is a documentation process approach to dela with engineering change. It helps in PPAP documentation as well but more importantly it ensures that whatever change we implement that should approved by customer. And customer provide approval only when it aligns to meet their requirement.

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