PPAP element checklist

How it works

The production part approval process (PPAP) is how a supplier shows a customer that a part, made by the production process, meets every requirement. It has eighteen elements. The customer sets a submission level that decides which elements go to the customer and which the supplier keeps on file. This checklist proposes the requirement for each element at your level, tracks the owner, due date, status and evidence, and tells you whether the warrant can be signed.

1. Choose the submission level. Level 1 sends the part submission warrant alone (and the appearance report for appearance items). Level 2 adds samples and limited data. Level 3, the usual default, adds complete data, but the master sample and checking aids stay with the supplier. Level 4 is whatever the customer defines. Level 5 sends the warrant and samples and keeps the complete data ready for review at the supplier's site. The proposal sets each element to submit, retain or customer decides on this reading; customers often change it, so edit any row.
2. Work every element, whether or not it is submitted. A retained element is still developed, signed off and kept, ready for the customer to ask for. Only an element that does not apply (an appearance report for a part with no appearance requirement) is marked not required. The checklist warns if one of the eighteen has no row.
3. Completion. Completion counts the rows that apply (not required rows are left out) and the share that are complete or approved.completion = (rows complete or approved) / (rows that are not 'not required') x 100
4. Due, overdue and rejected. An open item is overdue when its due date is before today, and due soon when its due date falls within the look-ahead window (14 days unless you change it). Rejected items are listed on their own because each needs a correction and a resubmission.days left = due date − today; overdue if days left < 0; due soon if 0 <= days left <= window
5. Readiness to sign the warrant. The warrant states that every requirement is met, so it is signed last. The verdict is ready when every other applicable element is complete or approved, none is rejected, and no element is still waiting for the customer's decision. Otherwise it says what stands in the way.
6. Proposed dates. If you give the warrant date, the proposal sets an indicative due date for each element, working back from it in a sensible order (engineering records first, samples and customer records last). They are placeholders for you to replace.

Sources

The methods and default figures rest on these public sources. The wording here is our own; read the source for its full text.

• Production Part Approval Process (PPAP), Fourth Edition, Automotive Industry Action Group (AIAG), 2006. The eighteen elements and the five submission levels; cited by name only, with the method written in our own words.
• What are the PPAP submission levels? (opens in a new tab), InspectionXpert (Ideagen), Mari Luke, 11 October 2019. A public summary of the five levels, used to confirm the level rules above; it points back to the fourth edition of the manual.