Core Tools
What is Core Tools?
Core Tools is a set of tools mainly used in the automotive industry also known as PPAP, APQP, AMEF, SPC and MSA. These tools are processes developed jointly by Chrysler, Ford and General Motors to design, develop, prevent, measure, control, register, analyze and approve quality products and services that meet the needs and expectations of the client. These tools are a requirement of the technical specification IATF 16949: 2016.
APQP Advanced Product Quality Planning
Advanced product planning is a methodology that a manufacturer or supplier must follow to reach a finished product. It is very important in complex projects since the methodology facilitates communication between the parties involved, whether internal departments of a corporate or clients and suppliers.
PPAP Product Part Approval Process
The purpose of the PPAP is to ensure that all records and engineering specifications of the client are clearly understood. Although it is similar to the APQP, its focus is on the approval of a product that has already gone through the APQP process.
FMEA Failure Mode and Effects Analysis
Provides tools for risk analysis in new products or processes, major changes in processes or specifications, greater functional location changes.
In principle, the AMEF also known by its acronym in Spanish (Analysis of Mode and Effect of Fault) is responsible for analyzing the possible risks of failure in products and processes. The approach is methodological, it is based on cause and effect diagrams, evaluation criteria, etc.
SPC Statistical Process Control
SPC is simply statistical control of processes with a well-defined orientation towards automotive processes. It is related to MSA, especially in long-term stability studies.
In fact, this topic can be substituted for any quality statistical control, but its status document issued by AIAG makes it practically normative.
MSA Measurement Systems Analysis
The analysis of measurement systems is basically divided into two parts: the one that encompasses the methodological part of a laboratory for measurements and calibrations and which is responsible for the statistical tools to ensure quality in the results of the measurements. MSA unifies criteria on how a measurement system is accepted or released, focuses mainly on the study and control of the variability of measurement systems and their relation to production processes. Among the most common terms of MSA is GR & R, which is basically a statistical tool that quantifies the variability of the measurement system, its sources, and its relation to the variability of the production process.