Introducing MESH QMS: Your Path to Streamlined Quality
MES currently works with about 39 suppliers in India, 60+ in China, 8 in Vietnam, 20 in Mexico, and about 12 in European countries. MES also has 8 APQP / Project Engineers and 30 Supplier quality engineers around the world. Overall, at the time of this printing, MES has 341 APQP projects in the system. This is managed across about 100 users from sourcing, supply chain, quality, finance, and management. It also has about 150 supplier representatives who interact with the system to upload APQP documentation, timelines, milestone information, drawings, control plans, FMEA documentation, CPk studies, and full PPAP documents.
MESHQMS has allowed MES to have an efficient method for managing APQP projects. MESH also includes supplier quality engineers reporting what they are seeing, observing, and auditing at suppliers on a daily basis or progress on their own manufacturing plants on quality issues and incidents. These reports are either “For Files” or “Problems.” MESH also allows tracking the Corrective Actions and RMAs, helps keep track of parts rejected or reworked, and hence, tracks critical quality metrics such as Quality PPM.
One of the most important aspects of the MESH APQP product is its configurability and customization. Since all companies have different processes, MESH allows each project to be broken up into 3, 4, or up to 5 gates. Each gate has specific actions needed and responsibilities assigned. For Example, gate 1 can only close when certain managers or roles such as Sales or quality have approved the information.
MES uses 4 gate system to manage all APQP –
1) Gate 1 starts with NPIF – New Part Introduction Form, which allows all team members relevant to new parts or products sourced by customers to be added to the system. It has all commercial terms noted on the form, such as buying price, raw material cost, selling price, customer contact, supplier contact, and all relevant team representatives from country sourcing, supplier quality, project quality engineer, sourcing representative, sales account manager, and others as needed. Gate 1 is approved when all relevant stakeholders have signed off on the form. The system sends reminders every 48 hours to ensure all sign-off, escalate/reject, etc, as needed.
2) Gate 2 for MES is where technical requirements are reviewed for final customer-issued drawings. This includes a thorough review by suppliers, Design-for-manufacturing investigation, initial tooling plan and design, lead time confirmation, initial gaging review, tolerance review, and all aesthetics reviews. Gate 2 is closed when the supplier has completed a thorough drawing review, MES engineers are satisfied that parts can be made per drawing and customer intent, and finally, the customer has issued clear and comprehensive documentation to be able to make parts to specifications. Tooling is officially kicked off when Gate 2 closes.
3) Gate 3 – MES includes full tooling manufacturing, T0 production trials, and final PPAP runs in supplier machines and facility to replicate production conditions closely. All gages and secondary fixturing and processes are expected to be as close to production as possible. Gate 3 includes PPAP submission and stays open till the customer approves PPAP
4) Gate 4 – This is for safe launch and verification runs, including packaging trials, secondary process verification, high volume production trial and CPk verification. Gate 4 also includes new production runs (for Honda, it is Dan-1 and Dan-2 builds, and all OEMs have maturing production runs which are captured in Gate 4. Upon Gate 4 approval, part is considered out of APQP and into Supply Chain and production environment.
MESH has been built by supplier quality engineers, project engineers, and customer and supplier representatives working together on hundreds of projects together and providing inputs on what can be improved for the easiest onboarding and widest adoption by all parties concerned. It is a workflow tool used hourly and daily by all parties concerned. It is the only method of project execution in MES’s ecosystem adopted globally by all stakeholders. It dramatically improves the collaboration needed for effective project management and launches.
The MESH team has built QMS /APQP product to serve small and medium manufacturers, which has the same requirements globally but is underserved.
Your NPD, NPI, and APQP processes must not reside in Excel, PDF, or SharePoint systems. Contact MESH sales (info@meshworks.com or sahil.shah@meshworks.com)to help you digitize your APQP and quality management system.
About MES
MES delivers the highest quality iron and steel parts and components, manufactured to the most exacting specifications: yours. We’re a partner you can trust to deliver quality and value on time, every time. Our team looks forward to connecting with you and answering all your questions about iron and steel, sand casting, investment casting, forging, and CNC machining.
