Business Category: Quality / Industrial Category: Manufacturing

Checklist for Product Quality Planning and Control Plan (PQVP)

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Utilize this checklist for advanced product quality planning (APQP) documents to comprehensively address the intricate requirements of product quality management. Start with analyzing customer feedback, data from experience reports, and the quality policy. Define project goals by establishing priorities, design, quality, and reliability objectives, along with management support. Subsequently, perform all product and process design, development, and validation procedures while applying feedback, evaluations, and corrective actions for continuous improvement.

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Checklist for Product Quality Planning and Control Plan (PQVP)
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How to Use This Checklist

  • Set the scope of the APQP exercise. Confirm which customer, product, and programme the plan covers, and decide who from the project team will gather evidence and answer each part of the checklist. Record the location, the person preparing the response, and the date the work is conducted, so the record is traceable.?
  • Start with pre-planning. Work through customer feedback analysis, evaluate experience report data, review the quality policy, business plans and marketing strategies, and benchmark the product and process you are planning. Confirm customer specific requirements and note the product and process requirements and reliability studies that will shape the plan. Capture all of this before moving on, because the later stages depend on it.
  • Move into project planning and scope definition. Establish priorities and key performance indicators, define project goals, and set design, quality and reliability objectives. Review the drawings, confirm the customer order, and prepare the preliminary bill of materials, preliminary process flow diagram, and preliminary list of special product and process features. Build the product assurance plan, select and initiate the project team, and record the management support the project has behind it.
  • Carry out product design and development. Work through design failure mode and effects analysis, design for manufacturing and assembly, design verification and design reviews, and control the prototype build. Confirm technical drawings, including mathematical data, and technical specifications, and manage drawing and specification changes through change control. Identify the need for new equipment, tools and facilities, agree the key and urgent product and process features, note measurement and testing equipment requirements, and record team feasibility and management support.
  • Carry out process design and development. Review the product and process quality systems your organisation uses, design the layout from receiving to shipping, and complete process failure mode and effects analysis and the process flow diagram. Use the Eisenhower matrix to distinguish important from urgent actions, prepare the pre-launch control plan and work instructions, and plan measurement system analysis and the process capability preliminary study. Confirm packaging standards and packaging information.
  • Validate. Run production trials, assess the measurement systems, carry out the process capability preliminary study, and prepare the production part approval process submission. Complete production validation testing and the packaging assessment, and put the production control plan in place. Close the stage with quality planning approval and documented management support.
  • Introduce and improve. After launch, record feedback and assessment, raise corrective actions, and work on reducing deviations. Track the effect on customer satisfaction and delivery performance so the outcomes of this plan inform the next programme.
  • Answer every item as completed or incomplete. Avoid leaving items blank. An item answered as incomplete is an open action, not a failure; give it an owner and a date, and re-check it before the plan is approved.

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What advanced product quality planning is

Advanced product quality planning (APQP) is the structured way you plan, design, and validate a product and the process that makes it, so that quality is built in rather than inspected afterwards. It runs from the first customer conversation through to production and the improvements that follow launch. The output is a documented plan you can act on: defined objectives, agreed features, controlled changes, validated processes, and a control plan for ongoing production. This checklist follows that sequence across six stages and 67 items, covering pre-planning, project planning and scope definition, product design and development, process design and development, product and process validation, and new introduction and continuous improvement. Each item is answered as completed or incomplete.

Why the process matters

Quality problems are cheapest to fix when they are caught in planning and design, before tooling, trial runs, and volume production. APQP gives you the checkpoints to catch them there. It also gives you a record of what was decided and by whom, which matters when a customer asks how a special feature was controlled, or when a process change is proposed later. The checklist reflects that logic. It asks you to analyse customer feedback, evaluate experience report data, and review the quality policy, business plans and marketing strategies before committing to design decisions. It asks for design reviews, change control for drawings, and agreement on key and urgent product and process features before process development starts. Each of those steps is a point at which an assumption can be tested rather than carried forward.

What a good APQP plan covers

A complete plan addresses the product, the process, and the evidence that both work. In this checklist that means: - **Customer and business inputs.** Customer feedback analysis, quality policy, business plans and marketing strategies, experience report data, benchmarking, and customer specific requirements. - **Clear objectives and scope.** Priorities and key performance indicators, project goals, design, quality and reliability objectives, and customer order confirmation. - **Design definition.** Drawings review, technical drawings and specifications, design verification, design reviews, design failure mode and effects analysis, and design for manufacturing and assembly. - **Preliminary planning artefacts.** Preliminary bill of materials, preliminary process flow diagram, and the preliminary list of special product and process features. - **Process definition.** Layout design from receiving to shipping, process failure mode and effects analysis, process flow diagram, work instructions, and packaging standards and information. - **Controls and measurement.** Pre-launch and production control plans, measurement system analysis, and the process capability preliminary study. - **Validation and approval.** Production trials, measurement systems assessment, production part approval process, production validation testing, packaging assessment, and quality planning approval with management support. - **Improvement.** Feedback and assessment, corrective actions, reducing deviations, enhancing customer satisfaction, and improving delivery performance. Where a customer specific requirement, regulation, or standard such as a quality management system standard applies, that document controls. Treat the checklist as the tool that organises the work, not as a substitute for the requirement itself.

Pre-planning: understand the starting point

Pre-planning establishes what you already know and what the customer expects. You analyse customer feedback, review the quality policy, business plans and marketing strategies, and evaluate experience report data from comparable work. You benchmark the product and process, confirm the product and process requirements, review product reliability studies, and capture customer specific requirements. Skipping this stage leaves the plan built on preference rather than evidence.

Project planning and scope definition: commit to objectives

Here you turn the inputs into commitments. You establish priorities and key performance indicators, define project goals, and set design, quality and reliability objectives. The checklist has you confirm the customer order, review drawings, and produce a preliminary bill of materials, a preliminary process flow diagram, and a preliminary list of special product and process features. You prepare the product assurance plan, select and initiate the project team, and record management support. Without agreed objectives and visible sponsorship, the later stages have nothing to measure against.

Product design and development: test the design before the process

This stage proves the design can meet the objectives. You work through design failure mode and effects analysis, design for manufacturing and assembly, design verification, and design reviews, and you control the prototype build. Technical drawings, including mathematical data, and technical specifications are confirmed, and drawing and specification changes are managed under change control. You assess the need for new equipment, tools and facilities, build consensus on key and urgent product and process features, identify measurement and testing equipment requirements, and confirm team feasibility with management support.

Process design and development: build the process around the design

Process work starts once the design is stable enough to plan around. You review the product and process quality systems, design the layout from receiving to shipping, complete process failure mode and effects analysis, and prepare the process flow diagram. The Eisenhower matrix helps you separate important work from merely urgent work. You write the pre-launch control plan and work instructions, plan measurement system analysis and the process capability preliminary study, and settle packaging standards and packaging information.

Product and process validation: prove it works

Validation is the evidence stage. You run production trials, assess the measurement systems, carry out the process capability preliminary study, and prepare the production part approval process submission. Production validation testing and the packaging assessment confirm the product performs as designed and survives as packaged. The production control plan is finalised, and the stage closes with quality planning approval and management support, so the handover to production is explicit.

New introduction and continuous improvement

After launch the plan does not stop. The checklist covers feedback and assessment, corrective actions, and reducing deviations, alongside enhancing customer satisfaction and improving delivery performance. Use what you learn here to update the control plan and to feed the next programme, so that recurring issues are designed out rather than re-discovered.

How to run the checklist well

Answer every item as completed or incomplete, and leave nothing blank. An incomplete answer is an open action: give it an owner and a date and re-check it before approval. Keep the evidence with the answer, because the value of the plan is in the checks you can show. Involve the project team and management as the items require, and record their support where the checklist asks for it. Where the checklist references a customer requirement or a recognised standard, keep that document alongside it and let it govern.

Frequently Asked Questions

Advanced product quality planning (APQP) is the structured process you use to plan and control product quality before and during launch. This checklist walks you through the stages in order: pre-planning, project planning and scope definition, product design and development, process design and development, product and process validation, and new introduction and continuous improvement. At each stage you review inputs such as customer feedback analysis, quality policy, business plans and marketing strategies, and experience report data, then record what has been completed.

Pre-planning activities shape everything that follows. The checklist prompts you to analyse customer feedback, review quality policy, business plans and marketing strategies, evaluate experience report data, and carry out product and process benchmarking. You also confirm customer specific requirements and identify the product and process requirements and reliability studies that frame the plan. If you get these wrong, the rest of the APQP work will be built on assumptions rather than evidence.

Project planning and scope definition is where you set the direction. You establish priorities and key performance indicators, define project goals, review drawings, and set design, quality and reliability objectives. The checklist also has you prepare a preliminary bill of materials, a preliminary process flow diagram, and a preliminary list of special product and process features. You should confirm the customer order, build a product assurance plan, select and initiate the project team, and document management support.

In the product design and development stage, the checklist takes you through design failure mode and effects analysis, design for manufacturing and assembly, design verification, design reviews, and prototype build control planning. You confirm technical drawings, including mathematical data, and technical specifications, and you manage drawing and specification changes through change control. You also assess the need for new equipment, tools and facilities, check measurement and testing equipment requirements, and build consensus on key and urgent product and process features.

Process design and development moves the plan into the plant. The checklist has you review product and process quality systems, design the layout from receiving to shipping, carry out process failure mode and effects analysis, and prepare a process flow diagram. You use an Eisenhower matrix to sort important and urgent work, draw up a pre-launch control plan and work instructions, plan measurement system analysis and a process capability preliminary study, and settle packaging standards and packaging information.

Validation is where you prove the process and product work together. The checklist prompts you to run production trials, assess measurement systems, carry out the process capability preliminary study, and prepare the production part approval process submission. You complete production validation testing and packaging assessment, and put a production control plan in place. The stage closes with quality planning approval and documented management support.

Not every review will be marked completed, and that is the point. When the checklist surfaces an incomplete item, you record feedback and assessment, raise corrective actions, and work on reducing deviations. The final stage also points you to enhancing customer satisfaction and improving delivery performance, so the output of the plan feeds back into the next product or process rather than sitting in a finished file.

The checklist is not a substitute for the standard. Use it as the working tool that takes you through the APQP sequence, and keep any regulation, customer specific requirement or standard it references as the controlling document. Ground each entry in your own project evidence, such as your customer feedback analysis, drawings, and trial results, and involve the project team and management so that the approvals recorded in the checklist reflect real decisions.
Arne Reis
Written by
Arne Reis
Founder

Process optimizer with 25 years of expertise, focused on operational excellence in quality, maintenance, EHS, and commissioning. Emphasizes innovative solutions and top-quality standards.

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