Automotive Quality Core Tools: APQP, PPAP, MSA, SPC & 8D

The five core tools as one launch discipline — APQP phases, the 18-element PPAP package, Gage R&R measurement systems analysis, SPC starter set, and 8D corrective action — taught with polymer-specific launch failure modes (weld lines, warp, shrinkage) no generic quality course covers.

Private cohorts & on-site
Format: 2-day (8:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m.)
Level: Intermediate-Advanced
Location: Scheduled on demand · on-site at your facility or a regional venue
Date(s): Not yet scheduled for open enrollment. Get notified when it is, or book it privately for your team.
Includes: Certificate of Completion · printed slide binder · take-home reference text

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One email when dates are set. Or skip the wait: run it as a private cohort, on-site at your plant.

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Faculty

Faculty details for this seminar will be announced with the full schedule.

Fees

Early: $1,895 (payment 4+ weeks ahead)
Standard: $2,095 (check/ACH) · $2,165 (card)

Group discount: $200 off per attendee for 3+ from the same organization.

Also Available

  • Corporate on-site delivery at your facility
  • Private cohort sessions
  • Digital curriculum licensing

Seminar Overview

Every automotive program runs on the five core tools, yet almost no engineer is ever formally taught them on plastic parts: APQP arrives as a customer form, PPAP as an 18-element checklist, MSA as a Gage R&R spreadsheet, and 8D as a template somebody else fills in. This seminar teaches the core tools as what they actually are — one integrated launch-control discipline — using plastic-part examples throughout: dimensional PPAPs on warp-prone housings, Gage R&R on features where shrinkage and creep move the part between measurements, and 8Ds where the root cause is a weld line the design put in the wrong place.

The course is grounded in the AIAG core-tool manuals and the NIST engineering statistics handbook (already in the ETS knowledge corpus), with the polymer layer that generic quality training cannot supply: why PPAP dimensional packages on plastics need shrinkage allowance philosophy stated up front, why capability studies on glass-filled grades need moisture-conditioning control, and how the DVP&R, FMEA, and PPAP artifacts interlock on a molded part program.

Attendees leave with the complete vocabulary their OEM customers use, a PPAP package skeleton they can reuse, and the judgment to know when a plastic part's quality plan needs to deviate from the generic automotive script — and how to document that deviation so it survives the customer's SQE review.

Ideal Learner

  • Supplier quality engineers (SQE) and quality managers at Tier-1/Tier-2 plastics suppliers
  • Design and process engineers preparing or defending PPAP submissions
  • Launch/APQP coordinators and program quality leads
  • Quality staff at molders and CDMOs serving automotive and regulated customers

Learning Objectives

  • Lay out a complete APQP plan for a molded-part program, phase by phase
  • Assemble the 18-element PPAP package and know which elements plastics make non-trivial
  • Run and interpret a Gage R&R on plastic-part features where the part itself moves
  • Set up SPC on molding processes: which characteristics, which charts, which rules
  • Lead an 8D where the root cause is a design decision, not a process drift
  • Connect DVP&R, FMEA, and PPAP artifacts into one traceable launch record

Consulting Sessions

Seminar attendees can sign up for individual consulting sessions with the instructor. Sessions are free for registered attendees, first-come first-served — sign up when registering by calling 248-539-0473 or during the seminar.

Seminar Outline

  • The five phases and what 'complete' means per phase
  • Translating customer-specific requirements (CSR) into a control plan
  • Design verification vs. process validation on molded parts
  • The polymer-specific timing traps: tooling lead time, material qualification, moisture conditioning
  • Element-by-element walkthrough on a live housing example
  • Dimensional results with shrinkage philosophy stated
  • Appearance approval reports (AAR) for Class-A surfaces
  • Capturing customer-specific requirements without missing them
  • Why plastics break naive Gage R&R: creep, moisture, temperature
  • Variable and attribute studies on molded features
  • Fixing a failed study: fixture design, fixturing strategy, datum targets
  • Repeatability vs. reproducibility on soft, warpy parts
  • Choosing characteristics worth charting on a molding process
  • Variables charts in cavity-pressure world: what to chart and why
  • Capability (Cpk/Ppk) on skewed and time-dependent distributions
  • Out-of-control action plans that end in the mold, not in a memo
  • D1-D3: team, problem description, containment on field failures
  • D4 done right: is/is-not analysis that lands on the weld line
  • The five-whys discipline with fishbone on a real warp claim
  • D5-D8: corrective action that changes the design or the tool — and the read-across lesson
  • How DVP&R, PFMEA, control plan, and PPAP interlock
  • Traceability from customer requirement to process parameter
  • The annual-review and change-control loop
  • Workshop: assemble a launch package for a sample part

More in Track L — Quality & Launch Standards

Full Course Catalog