Also called part submission warrant, PSW, APQP
What is the production part approval process?
The evidence package an automotive customer requires before you are allowed to ship production parts.
What else it is called
- Other names
- part submission warrant, PSW, APQP
- In French
- processus d’approbation de pièces de production
Related entries
Understanding production part approval process
A standard package of evidence that a part can be made correctly by the process that will actually make it, running at production rate with production tooling. The parts submitted have to come from a significant production run, not from a careful one-off, which is the point of the exercise.
Typical contents include the design records, the process flow, the process failure mode analysis, the control plan, a full dimensional report, material and performance test results, capability studies on the characteristics the customer flagged, measurement system analysis, and a part submission warrant signing for the lot. At level 3 most of that goes to the customer; at level 1 only the warrant does, with the rest retained and available.
The obligation people forget is the continuing one. Moving an operation to a different machine, changing a supplier of a raw material, or retooling after a die wears out are all notifiable changes, and shipping after an unreported change is the kind of finding that costs a plant its approved status.
In practice
The warrant is a signature saying the parts in the box match the drawing and were made the way you described. Treat an unreported process change as a breach of that signature, because that is how a customer will treat it.
Frequently asked
What is advanced product quality planning?
The project framework that produces a part approval package. It runs from planning and design through process development to validation and launch, with defined outputs at each stage. The approval package is the evidence that the framework was followed.
Do non-automotive customers ask for this?
Increasingly, yes. Aerospace has its own equivalent, and industrial and medical customers often ask for a reduced version under their own name. The underlying request is always the same: show us the process can hold the drawing.