12º Congresso e Exposição Internacionais

de Tecnologia da Mobilidade

São Paulo, Brasil

18 a 20 de novembro de 2003

AV. PAULISTA, 2073 - HORSA II - CJ. 2001 - CEP 01311-940 - SÃO PAULO – SP

SAE TECHNICAL

2003-01-3690

PAPER SERIES

E

A Proposal for Product Qualification

at the Automotive Industry

Ciro Batista Rosa

Visteon Sistemas Automotivos/Universidade de São Paulo

1

2003-01-3690

A Proposal for Product Qualification at the Automotive Industry

Ciro B. Rosa

Universidade de São Paulo / Visteon Corporation

Copyright © 2003 Society of Automotive Engineers, Inc

ABSTRACT

This paper is a discussion of the requirements

for product qualification at the automotive sector, and
presents a more specific methodology to the current
version of ISO/TS-16949 specification. A tool known
as Value Analysis/Value Engineering (VA/VE) is used
to determine the essential functions of the product
qualification process.

INTRODUCTION

With the arrival of the so-called “newcomers”,

the new car manufacturers, to the brazillian market on
the 90´s, the need of world class suppliers to the
automotive industry became more evident. The
diversity of car manufacturers, on the other hand, has
significantly added complexity to the qualification
processes required by them. Just to name a few of
them, we have the QS 9000 for the american makers,
VDA, for the germans, EAQF for french manifacturers.
More recently, the market has seen the arrival of
ISO/TS 16949, with its second edition being launched
in 2002. The new standard came with the promise of
unifying all automotive quality systems, and the same
for the requirements for product qualification.

In theory, the ISO/TS 16949 has accomplished its

objectives. As stated in its paragraph 7.3.6.3, “The
organization shall conform to a product and
manufacturing process approval procedure recognized
by the customer”. In real word, the confusion of
different requirements continues.

PRODUCT QUALIFICATION PROCESS
BACKGROUND

Perhaps the most used process for product

qualification is the Production Part Approval process,
PPAP in short, which is part of the QS 9000 quality
system. Its 3

rd

edition calls for 19 elements. If we

consider the specific requirements of the Big Three

(Ford, GM, DaimlerChrysler), the number of elements
could easily reach much more.

Although not being a product qualification

process, the Advanced Product Quality Planning
(APQP), which is also part of QS 9000, could be an
interesting guideline to follow during process
qualification. However, its 49 elements make the task
even more dificult than in PPAP.

The Verband der Automobilindustrie (VDA) has

done a somewhat better job in terms of elements
reduction. VDA-2 manual shows 11 elements to folow.
An equivalence to the PPAP elements is shown on
table 1.

VDA Element

PPAP Equivalent

N/A = Not applicable

1 I.2.2.13

2

I.2.2.7, I.2.2.8, I.2.2.15

3 I.2.1

4 I.2.2.1,

I.2.2.2

5 I.2.2.3

6 I.2.2.4,

I.2.2.6

7 I.2.2.5,

I.2.2.12

8 I.2.2.12

9 I.2.2.18

10 I.2.2.9

11 I.2.2.19

Table 1: VDA elements for product qualification and the
equivalence with PPAP.

2

THE VALUE ANALYSIS/VALUE ENGINEERING
METHODOLOGY

The Value Analysis/Value Engineering (VA/VE)

methodology has been used to help on the understanding of
what tasks are absolutely necessary to perform in order to
have a comprehensive product qualification process.

The first step in the process is to identify which

Components form a product qualification process. The
secon step is then to assign Functions to each component.
In other words, one should briefly name, with a verb and a
noun, these functions, which in turn describe what each
component does in the process. Table 2 summarizes the
components and functions.

Component

Function (Verb+Noun)

Document Product

Specifications

Provide Evidences

Approve Appearance

Comply Regulation

Comply Norms

Evaluate Durability

Evaluate Supply

Evaluate Operation

Compare Measurements

Perform Experiments

Validate Manufacturing

Validate Assembly

Validate Design

Tests and Experiments

Validate Technology

Analyze Results

Document Product

Document Results

Provide Evidences

Reports

Generate Improvements

Support Event

Comply Regulation

Comply Norms

Document Results

Provide Evidences

Technical Warrant

Obtain Approval

Samples

Support Event

Component

Function (Verb+Noun)

Provide Evidences

Generate Standards

Table 2: Components and functions of the product
qualification process. Note that some functions appear
dupplicated, hence they can be optimized.

The third step is then to “forget” the components we have
named and work only with the functions. This step ensures
that the proposal to be achieved with this methodology has
no connection to te cuurent method, ensuring that old habits
do not contaminate the new process.

The functions are then put into a pictorial representation,
where one an clearly see the relationship among functions.
This representation is called Function Analysis System
Technique (FAST).

The last step of the methodology, and perhaps the most time
consuming, is to eliminate functions which do not add value
to the process and find out different alternatives to perform
the remeining ones.

THE NEW PRODUCT QUALIFICATION PROCESS

After applying the VA/VE methodology, we came up

with a list of only 5 elements, which represent the very
bottom line of the product qualification process. These are:

1. Design FMEA and Process FMEA, as per elements

I.2.2.4 and I.2.2.6 of the PPAP manual.

2. Control Plan, as per element 7.5.1.1 of ISO/TS 16949

and I.2.2.12 of the PPAP manual.

3. Total Validation Plan, which is an enhanced DVP&R of

the APQP manual.

4. Appearance Approval Report (AAR), only if required

by the product, as per element I.2.2.14 of the PPAP
manual.

5. Part Submission Warrant (PSW), as per element I.2.2.13

of the PPAP manual.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Would like to thank Prof. Dr. Lucas Moscato from the
Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil, for his continued
support and motivation during the preparation of this
article.

3

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Shiba,S.;Grahan,A;Walden;D. TQM:Quatro revoluções na
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Cole,M. et al. Integrating product and process planning.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mr. Rosa is a BS in Electrical Engineering from

Unversidade Federal de Pernambuco, Brazil and an M. Eng.
student of Automotive Engineering at the Universidade de
São Paulo, Brazil. Other specialization includes:

semiconductor manufacturing and failure analysis at Philips
Semiconductors (The Netherlands and Germany), Ford
Microelectronics (USA); Scanning Electron Microscopy
and X-ray diffraction at Philips Electron Optics

Applications Lab (The Netherlands) and Link Analytical
(England); and SOI/CMOS semiconductor technology, at
the Laboratory of Integrated Systems of the Universidade
de São Paulo. He has been working on the last ten years at
Visteon Corporation, where he currently holds the position
of Program Team Manager, Electronics Manufacturing.

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© Copyright 2003 Society of Automotive Engineers, Inc.

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