APQP Checklist: Driving the Five Phases
What is APQP?
APQP (Advanced Product Quality Planning) is AIAG's systematic product-development method that divides new-product development from planning to launch into five phases: plan and define the program; product design and development; process design and development; product and process validation; and feedback, assessment and corrective action. It moves quality planning to the front of development instead of retrofitting quality after design, and is a core requirement IATF 16949 places on suppliers. Cross-functional teamwork and phase-gate reviews are built in: a phase is exited only when its deliverables are verified.
When to Use It
Use it for new-product development in automotive and similar industries, before and during PPAP preparation, and for customer APQP reviews. Following the AIAG APQP second edition, Phase 1 delivers the project charter, timing plan and initial special-characteristics list; Phase 2 the DFMEA, prototype control plan and design verification; Phase 3 the process flow, PFMEA, control plan and work instructions; Phase 4 the PPAP submission and capacity verification; and Phase 5 continuous improvement and lessons learned.
How to Use It (Step by Step)
Create the checklist at project kickoff, assign an owner and planned date to every item, and update completion status at project meetings. Use the per-phase completion rate as a health indicator for management reporting with red/yellow/green status, and explicitly mark customer-approval milestones such as sample approval and PPAP sign-off. Do not treat the checklist as a formality — it is the project control that prevents deliverables being missed or delivered late.
Key Formulas / Example
There are no statistical formulas; the structure is the deliverable dependency logic: DFMEA feeds the prototype control plan, PFMEA feeds the control plan, and the control plan feeds the PPAP submission. The per-phase completion percentage equals checked deliverables divided by the total deliverables in that phase, giving a direct progress metric for each gate.