A Critical Review of the New APQP Reference Manual for Automotive Quality Management

The third edition of the Advanced Product Quality Planning (APQP) Reference Manual was published by AIAG in March 2024. It is a good opportunity for organizations in the automotive industry to update their quality core tools and apply the new APQP elements to improve product quality. This paper focuses on the main differences and proposes ways to integrate the new APQP elements into the existing automotive quality management systems based on IATF 16949.