Product validation in the pre-launch phase is one of those supplier activities that is also carried out during ongoing production.
In this case, we are talking about re-qualification, sanctioned by the requirements of IATF 8.6.2 Layout Inspection and Functional Testing and Customer Specific Requirements (CSR). For this reason, it is worth learning the basic principles of this area of the organization’s activity.
IATF 8.6.2 Layout Inspection and Functional Testing – CSR’s summary
The above requirement informs that each product (or product family) should be subject to appropriate dimensional control and functional testing. However, it does not contain a provision regarding the frequency of the above-mentioned checks, which are included in the relevant of Customers Specific Requirements.
For this reason, when managing the project of a given client (OEM), it is worth carefully analyzing the relevant documentation. Below is presented a list for customers who have such requirements in this regard:
– Stellantis-FCA (EMEA/LATAM) – for this customer, product requalification (or revalidation) must be carried out once every 12 months (similar to North America OEM plants) and information that contributes to the development of revalidation activities are defined during an Advance Quality Planning meeting between the organization and customer engineering .
The document that the organization should read on this occasion is the Supplier Product Validation (SPV), where there is an appropriate column informing whether a given test must be performed as part of re-qualification. However, in the event that this column is not fulfilled, the supplier will have to repeat all the tests.
Information about performed tests should be included in the Control Plan, which is sanctioned by the question 7.2. during the Process Audit.
– Ford – for this client, as for Stellantis-FCA, the product revalidation must be performed once every 12 months. In addition, the CSRs contain information that the number of samples used for this activity should be 5 pieces and that if the mould / tool is multi-cavity, it is enough to test only one of them.
– VW – this client, unlike those mentioned earlier, has less restrictive requirements with regard to the frequency of 36 months. In addition, more information on this topic is provided in the VDA document “RPP – Robust Production Processes” and in the new edition of the VDA 2 handbook from 2020.
– BMW – re-qualification should be performed annually based on Group Standard 90018-1 and 90018-2.
– Mercedes – the supplier is obliged to check annually whether his deliveries comply with Daimler’s specifications. For more information, see MBST 14/06, Section 5, Clause 9.
Other customers: Stellantis-PSA, GM, Renault do not have such specific requirements, therefore in this case the IATF requirements must be met by properly defining and implementing periodic re-qualification, taking into account the risk assessment.
Table 1. Customer-specific requirements list in relation to the 8.6.2 IATF requirement
Layout Inspection and Functional Testing – what to keep in mind during defining?
A very important element of defining the activity related to product requalification is the involvement of the supplier’s engineering. In this way, the scope of re-qualification tests can be defined based on the knowledge of appropriate test equipment availability that was used for validation.
Additionally, it is worth remembering that in the event that requalification tests are performed by external companies, this fact should be taken into account in the project quotation. Thanks to this, in the current production it will be possible to include the appropriate costs in the planned expenses.
The last element worth agreeing with the client is the storage time of the parts after requalification tests. This is important because the customer, in the event of a problem from warranty field, may additionally request the presentation of parts for which tests were carried out during this period as part of dimensional control and functional tests.
