Contributions concerning the possibility of implementing the APQP concept in the aerospace industry

Abstract

To ensure customer satisfaction, the products made by aviation, space and defense organizations need to be continuously improved from the point of view of safety, security, reliability and maintainability. The improvement goal is to be at the customers' requirements and legislations level, if not even to overcome it. The occurring problem with the final products is the challenge to ensure their quality in a shorter time. In this research the importance of implementing the APQP concept in the aeronautical industry is highlighted. To achieve this purpose, the methodologies needed to ensure that the product development processes of the aviation, space and defense industry are fully integrated processes ranging from concept and design to planning, manufacturing and production, aiming the product good use, a quality service and finally getting a positive customer feedback. The final goal of this concept implementing is the Production Part Approval Process (PPAP), which is actually the main result of APQP confirming that the manufacturing process has demonstrated the potential to achieve products that consistently fulfil absolutely all the expressed and not expressed customer requirements.