Quality8 min read
Control plans: what to include and how to keep them useful
The columns, the three life cycle versions and the reaction plans that turn a control plan from a document into process control.
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Topic hub
Quality and inspection
Quality is a set of decisions made before the first part is measured. These guides cover general tolerances, GD&T, first article inspection, PPAP and the records a buyer should expect with a production shipment.
Guides in this topic, page 3
Quality9 min read
Datums: how to choose them and why they decide the inspection
A practical method for picking datum features that match the assembly, the fixture and the CMM, with the errors that make a good callout unmeasurable.
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Quality8 min read
Incoming inspection: setting up a plan that matches the risk
A goods-in plan built on part criticality and supplier evidence, with the sample, the record and the quarantine step written down.
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Quality10 min read
Quality documentation pack for a first shipment
What belongs in the pack, what each document actually proves and the gaps that turn a first delivery into a hold at goods-in.
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Quality9 min read
APQP: the five phases and what each one delivers
A phase by phase guide to advanced product quality planning, the outputs that gate each stage and the failures that appear at launch.
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Quality9 min read
Ballooned drawings: how to prepare one that survives an audit
Numbering rules, what earns a balloon and what does not, and how to map every characteristic to a first article report without losing the revision trail.
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Quality10 min read
GD&T basics for custom parts: symbols, datums and control frames
A plain guide to the language that tells a supplier what a feature must do, not just how big it must be.
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Quality9 min read
Supplier audits: planning, evidence and scoring on site or remotely
How to set criteria before the visit, follow a part through the factory and decide which findings need a second look.
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Quality9 min read
ISO 2768-2: geometrical tolerances and what replaced it
The H, K and L classes, the characteristics they covered, the gaps they left and the standard that now takes their place.
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Quality8 min read
ISO 9001 vs IATF 16949: what the certificate actually means
The scope, the exclusions and the audit regime behind the two certificates, and the questions that separate a system from a capable process.
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Quality10 min read
Plating thickness measurement: XRF, coulometric and cross-section
Three methods, three different answers. Where to measure on a plated part, what each technique can resolve and how to record a thickness that a customer will accept.
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Quality9 min read
PPAP: the 18 elements explained
What each element of a production part approval submission proves, who owns it and which ones buyers read first.
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