Getting Started with PPAP Reports

A PPAP report collects the evidence your customer expects for production part approval in one place. It combines your AS9102 forms with process documents, studies and photos, and it exports to the customer’s own workbook.

PPAP is an opt in feature. If you do not see it, you will be told to contact us to enable PPAP reports, and any PPAP reports you already have stay available. To gain access, please reach out to [email protected].

Choose Create New Report and select PPAP as the report type. Your report opens on the Cover Page.
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The output workbook exists for certain customers only. For any other customer you will see a banner saying there is no PPAP output template for that customer yet, and the report header shows that PPAP output is unavailable. Contact support if you need a template added.

The sidebar lists the Cover Page and Documents first, then the FAIR forms. Below those you will find Process (PFD, PFMEA, Control Plan and Process Changes), Studies (MSA and Cap Study), and Evidence (Point Clouds, Fixturing, PFEP and MPR). Process Changes and the Evidence group appear for certain customers. Reviewers see the same pages, and they open as view only when the report is locked or the reviewer cannot edit.

You can simply click on each section to access the sub-section, with each individual portion of the section.

The Cover Page holds the supplier name, part number, supplier code, part revision, part description, and a supplier contact. These details are shared with Form 1, and a PPAP starts with the supplier contact you used last. You can attach your drawing and supporting PDFs under Source documents, up to 100 MB each, and fill in the Warrant.

Below the header, a Requirements checklist lists each deliverable and links to the page where you complete it. Dimensional Validation appears on the list and is marked as not supported. A copy and paste requirements grid records requests, request sources, supplier responses and evidence, and your requests and response notes carry into the exported workbook.

You can scroll to the right hand side to see more information about each section.

On the Documents page, upload files into categories such as Traveler and Router, Work Instructions, Process Photos and Diagram, and Injection Setup. Each category shows whether it has files, and you can add captions, download files and preview them. PDFs show a first page thumbnail, and Office and text files preview in comments.
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The AS9102 forms work the way they do on any FAIR. PPAP pages and exports use the Original Char number from Form 3, and Standard Designator choices appear in uppercase. Form 1 shows whether your eCert Certificate of Conformance is signed and still matches the report, and opens the signing preview from there.

On the PFD page, list each operation with its machine, inputs and outputs, times and reaction plan. Choose Add from Form 3 Op # to bring in operations and balloon links from Form 3, and drag steps to reorder them.

The PFMEA page records failure modes for each operation. Choose Suggest failure modes and Generate suggestions to draft failure mode sentences from the saved operation, its linked requirements and requirement images. You can review the sources and edit each draft before adding it. Failure modes are not linked to balloons.

You may also right click on the failure cell to add a failure mode.

The Control Plan has one row per Form 3 balloon, with the controlling process step, limits, gage resolution, measurement frequencies before and after approval, and notes. A balloon can be assigned to more than one process operation. Frequency fields suggest values already used at your site, gage resolution shows from the feature’s MSA study when none is typed, and control plan notes are edited here, separate from characteristic comments. Minimum and maximum lot size print on this page and on the cover.

Customer bubbles on the Control Plan and PPAP grids open the same original drawing crop you see in Form 3. Hovering a PFMEA balloon shows its full label.

The Process Changes page shows the agreement clause. Check I agree to these terms to record your agreement. This page counts as the report’s agreement and does not count toward page completion.

On the MSA page, pick a feature, grouped as Key, Major and Other balloons, and start a study. Enter two or three appraisers, two or three trials, two to ten parts, the gage, gage number, gage resolution, study date and notes, then fill the readings grid. A study starts with the team from your last study, and choosing a gage your site has used before fills its number and resolution when they are empty.

Choose your study variation (6 or 5.15 sigma), whether to judge gage R&R against tolerance or total variation, and whether to apply AIAG pass bands. After every reading is entered, you will see repeatability, reproducibility, gage R&R, part to part and total variation, each with standard deviation and percentage columns. The verdict reads Acceptable, May be acceptable or Not acceptable. Checks cover category counts, resolution, ranges and the interaction p value, and charts show range by appraiser and components of variation.

The Cap Study page uses the numeric readings in Form 3, in sample order. Attribute results such as PASS are left out. Only features with valid upper and lower limits are listed, and if there are none, you are asked to add a toleranced feature in Form 3 to start a study.

For each feature, choose the distribution (Normal or Weibull), the first and last reading, the number of histogram bins, and the lot field from your sample metadata. For a feature that uses MMC or LMC, choose the feature of size and a bonus type of Hole MMC, Pin MMC, Hole LMC or Pin LMC so GD&T bonus tolerance applies. Save study to keep it, and it is saved per feature and included in the workbook. Sample column headers show how many samples remain and keep serial suffixes, so repeated parts stay easy to tell apart.

Results show n, lots, Ppk, Pp, PPL, PPU, mean, standard deviation, minimum, maximum, PPM, out of tolerance and out of control counts. The histogram with its distribution fit and the readings run chart redraw as you change settings. Click a bubble or a reading identifier to jump to Form 3. A study needs at least two readings and valid limits, and export is held while settings are unsaved, invalid or saving.

On the Point Clouds page, choose Add row, or Add Key and Major balloons to add every Key and Major feature at once. Each row records the supplier bubble, customer bubble, bubble text, category, probe points and method, and point cloud evidence as an image or PDF. Drag rows to change the order.

The Inspection Setup and Fixturing page has slots for the fixture empty, fixture with part, gage empty and gage with part, plus extra photos. Each slot has a description and a retention method, and the page must include all Key and Major features and datums as a minimum.

The PFEP page records the packing method, parts per package, packages per box, boxes per pallet, returnable packaging and part marking. It has four photo slots, each with length, width and height and a material or description caption.

The MPR page asks eleven Yes or No questions, each with a note.

Package pages accept PNG and JPEG images, and PDFs where allowed, up to 25 MB each. A section holds up to 50 files, and you can replace, remove, download and preview each one. On image files with a caption field, choose Suggest to get a caption of twelve words or fewer, then choose Use to keep it or dismiss it.

Grids accept cell ranges, the fill handle, multi cell paste and undo, and a pasted bubble number picks its Form 3 balloon. Column headers wrap and have filters. Required columns are bold, or bold italic when only some rows need them. The report header flashes green when a PPAP save finishes and stays red while your last change is unsaved.

On a PPAP report, CMM import keeps every reading attached to a physical part. Each file should describe one physical part, and repeat runs of the same part can be grouped during review. You can filter and select uploaded files in bulk, pre-fill report serials and lots, and match exact serials to parts you have already saved. A PPAP workbook that names several parts is stopped before analysis, so split it into one file per part.

Before anything is saved, you are asked to confirm physical parts, covering the file groups, identifiers and lot associations. The Serial / part ID column shows how each reading is matched. A missing lot is filled from the saved value, and a conflict stays visible so you can resolve it. Measurements that cannot be matched are left out until you correct them.

Readings are kept at full precision, including zeros and repeated readings. You can import up to 200 reports at once, and the limit is checked before analysis starts. Serial numbers that arrive as formatted numbers are entered manually so leading zeros are not lost. Other report types keep the standard CMM import.

Open the export dialog to see what the PPAP still needs, grouped by page. It lists each empty required page, a point cloud row and image for every Key and Major feature, and a certificate for each Form 2 material and process row. The eCert check also flags any QC 13 column whose text cannot fit on one row. Issue counts describe the page you are on, and Mark report as completed stays clear while issues remain.

In the export dialog, choose the format matching your customer. Choose Whole workbook or One file per task, which gives a zip with one file for each visible sheet. The export shows each stage while it builds, and the result is a macro enabled XLSM file that keeps the customer’s macros and checkboxes. Charts and calculations recalculate when controls or readings are edited.

You will also be able to see any errors that we flag before exporting.

The workbook fills the cover page, FAIR, PFD, PFMEA, Control Plan, bubbled drawing, certificates, capability study data and charts, one MSA sheet for each study, and the Process Changes, Point Clouds, Fixturing, PFEP and MPR pages. Certificates are limited to 20 pages per side, and the sheet tells you how many did not fit. The risk analysis sheet holds the top ten failures by RPN, and a blank section leaves the customer’s template as it is.

On a PPAP report, ask inspection chat to pre-fill the report or name a source part or report. The chat plans the copy, shows every proposed copy, fill and skip, and writes only after you choose Approve. It can copy process steps, balloon placement when the drawing matches, PFMEA text, empty control plan cells, MSA setups, capability study drafts, and Key and Major point cloud rows. PFMEA severity, occurrence and detection stay empty unless you ask for them, and MSA readings, capability readings and point cloud photos are never copied.