PPAPs are meant to reduce risk, not create it. Yet for many manufacturers, the Production Part Approval Process has become a recurring source of frustration, rework, and unexpected cost. Requirements change from customer to customer, documentation is rejected for unclear reasons, and quality teams are often forced into a reactive scramble after parts are already complete.
At Ledge, Inc., the focus is on helping manufacturers take control of the PPAP process, simplify execution, and improve first-pass approval rates by combining better upfront planning with practical technology.
Start With What the Customer Is Actually Asking For
One of the most common PPAP problems is inconsistency. Manufacturers submit PPAPs that have been accepted by other OEMs or even by the same customer in the past, only to face rejections because expectations have shifted or were never clearly defined.
The most effective way to avoid this is to engage early. Before parts are made and before documentation deadlines create pressure, it is critical to work directly with the customer’s supplier quality team. Confirm what they expect to see, how they want it formatted, and which elements truly apply to the part being produced.
Waiting until parts are finished and then rushing to assemble a PPAP puts quality teams in an impossible position. Planning upfront allows PPAP documentation to be built alongside production, rather than after the fact.
Avoid the Trap of Last-Minute PPAPs
Many organizations fall into the same pattern. Production finishes the part, then quality is told that a PPAP is required. At that point, timelines are compressed, data may be incomplete, and assumptions replace clarity.
Upfront planning changes this entirely. When PPAP requirements are understood before production begins, inspection data, capability studies, and documentation can be collected naturally as part of the process. This dramatically reduces stress, rework, and late-stage surprises.
It also creates space to push back when requests do not make sense, such as capability studies on extremely low-volume builds. Those conversations are far easier to have before parts are sitting on a dock waiting for approval.
The Real Cost of PPAPs and Why It Matters
PPAPs are a cost of quality, but they are often treated as invisible. Many manufacturers absorb the cost without capturing it in quotes, even when PPAPs involve significant time, measurement effort, and tooling.
For complex parts, full PPAPs can exceed ten thousand dollars in internal cost. Without upfront alignment and pricing, those costs directly erode margins.
There is growing opportunity to address this transparently. Some manufacturers are implementing flat PPAP fees based on submission level. Others use an à la carte approach, clearly pricing items such as capability studies, first articles, or additional analysis. When handled early and communicated clearly, many OEMs are increasingly willing to pay for what they require.
Passing PPAPs on the First Try
Rework is expensive whether it happens on the shop floor or in documentation. Every PPAP rejection creates additional labor, delays shipments, and ties up quality resources.
The goal is not just to complete a PPAP, but to pass it the first time. That means reducing variability in how PPAPs are assembled, reviewed, and submitted.
Technology plays a key role here, not by replacing expertise, but by removing unnecessary manual effort and reducing avoidable errors.
Speeding Up First Articles and Data Collection
First articles are often the foundation of the PPAP process, yet they can be one of the most time-consuming elements, especially for complex geometry and GD&T.
Tools that automate bubble prints and link inspection data directly into first article reports can dramatically reduce effort. Some solutions allow prints to be scanned, ballooned automatically, and tied directly to measurement results from a CMM. In some cases, OEMs are even willing to accept CMM reports that align to bubble prints instead of fully transcribed first article forms, saving both time and money.
These efficiencies benefit everyone in the supply chain when expectations are aligned.
Simplifying Statistical Requirements
Capability studies and gauge R&Rs are another frequent PPAP pain point. While tools like Minitab are powerful, they are often expensive and underutilized by small and mid-sized manufacturers.
Excel-based tools such as QI Macros provide a practical alternative. They allow teams to execute capability studies and gauge analyses quickly, at a fraction of the cost, and without requiring advanced statistical expertise. When used appropriately, these tools meet customer needs while keeping costs under control.
Using AI to Streamline PPAP Documentation
Artificial intelligence is increasingly valuable when applied thoughtfully to PPAP workflows. The goal is not automation for its own sake, but speed and consistency.
For many job shops, PFMEAs, control plans, and process flows are largely standardized, with only minor variations based on routing. AI tools can generate part-specific documents by starting from global templates and selecting only the applicable processes. This eliminates the need to rebuild documents from scratch while still allowing human review and refinement.
AI can also be used as a pre-submission reviewer. By checking uploaded PPAP documentation against the required submission level, AI tools can flag missing elements, inconsistencies, or mismatches before anything is sent to the customer. This creates a customer-style review internally, catching issues early and improving first-pass success.
Bringing It All Together
Successful PPAP execution starts long before documentation is submitted. It begins with early customer alignment, realistic quoting, and thoughtful planning. It continues with tools that reduce manual effort, simplify analysis, and improve consistency.
Manufacturers that treat PPAPs as a structured process rather than a last-minute task are far more likely to reduce cost, save time, and pass on the first try.
As PPAP requirements continue to evolve, the combination of upfront communication, practical software, and targeted use of AI gives manufacturers a clear path to making PPAPs simpler, faster, and far less painful.
Video Transcript
Hi, this is Adam Marsh from Ledge Inc. And today I’m excited to talk about PPAPs, how we can use technology to help manufacturers, to address PPAPs, make them easier, and just kind of go over what our customers are doing with them, discuss are we charging with them, why customers, why those OEMs are asking for different things every time we do a PPAP and really trying to dive into some of our solutions for how to make this process easier. So I like to dive in with first starting understanding what is your customer really asking for? And we see continually where there’s a standard PPAP request, here’s what it’s supposed to look like and we submit one that has passed at other OEMs has already passed with this particular customer and all of a sudden we start getting rejections. And so this is a pretty common issue where we’re seeing problems across the network and across the folks who are doing the reviews that aren’t asking for the same things every time, want things to look different.
This can be really hard for manufacturers as you’re trying to understand and trying to get a gauge on exactly what that customer wants and making sure you’re delivering to their expectations. So it’s really critical upfront that you start to work with your customer and do it before the problem hits, before that part is due. Start submitting PPAP paperwork, start working with their supplier quality folks to say, “Is this what you’re looking for? ” That’s why we really recommend when a new PPAP is requested from a customer, we’re looking upfront to understand exactly what they’re looking for. And we’re trying to do that before we start making the part. We see too many folks fall into the trap of, “Hey, we got that part done, but they’re looking for a PPAP. You got to go get started on that. ” That’s a really bad place to be for the quality folks as they get a lot of pressure put on them to deliver documentation, to deliver things really quickly, maybe behind the ball.
And maybe they might not even have everything that they need. If you can plan this process upfront, which we really should be doing anyways, then you can streamline it. And as that part is being done, you can have all the necessary components you need for your PPAP and be able to deliver it. Look, we see OEMs ask for things like capability studies when we’re making two or three parts. Things like that become very difficult. And so we have to work with the OEMs to make them understand, “Hey, here’s what we’re able to deliver. Here’s what makes sense. Make sure everybody’s on the same page before we have this part done and it’s sitting waiting on their dock and they say, we can’t accept it because we don’t have an approved PPAP.” I am interested to see, especially in the comments where people kind of land on charging for PPAPs, this is a cost of quality that OEMs have pushed back a lot on, “Hey, you’re not charging for that.
” And if your team is not capturing this upfront, these become really expensive. We’ve seen these costs over $10,000 to deliver a full PPAP on some pretty complicated items with a lot of components. And so the dollars add up, and this is all about time, measurement costs, equipment costs, things like that, that can really, really add up. And if you’re not capturing that, it can really hit your bottom line. So we suggest starting to think about, hey, is there a flat PPAP cost based on the level? Is there an a la carte menu that your customer could pick from and say, “Hey guys, we can deliver a PSW or we can deliver a first article, but if you need a capability study, that costs this much.” And start to recapture some of that cost because there is a cost to quality and if your customer is expecting that, they should also expect to fund that side of it.
So I would say there is room for pushback and we’re seeing OEMs be a little more able or willing to pay for some of these, but you have to be upfront and be able to push on that. I would be interested to dive in then to what tools are working for people. So as we have tried to help our customers to streamline this process, our end goal is that we get that PPAP to pass on the first time. We deliver it as the part’s being delivered and it’s good to go before we’re laid on a part. So the more that we can get to pass the first time, certainly the less rework that we have. Look, rework counts, whether it’s on the part or if it’s in the paperwork. So all of that costs money and time, so we’re trying to get in front of that.
We have a couple tools that we would suggest. Some are ours and some are external tools that we just have found really helpful. So I would start with, how are you doing say some of your first article? And that’s where most of these start. How are you doing your bubble print? How are you collecting the data to go onto a first article report, especially if it’s complicated geometry, complicated GD&T symbols that would need to go onto say an Excel sheet and you have to load in. We’ve been recently working with some software called Discuss that is able to scan a print, bubble print it, and then layer it into a first article report. That’s been really powerful. It also will connect to your CMM. So if your CMM, if you’re getting dimensions right off of there, you can layer it right into the first article report.
We’ve also had customers recently be willing to, or OEMs be willing to accept a CMM report that matches into a bubble print rather than having to actually document it on our first article. And this can be a huge time saver. So working with your OEMs to start to understand, “Hey, this is just as good and saves us time and money, thus saving you time and money.” I think is a really cool way to start getting OEMs to understand there’s cost here and let’s work together to drive them out. Some other tools that we like, one is very strong. It’s called QI macros and we use that to help with capability studies, gauge R&R. So when the customers are requesting these, look, we can use Minitab, but a lot of small manufacturers, number one, can’t afford it. Number two, they use it two or three times a year and it’s tough to understand.
If instead we jump into QI macros, which is a plug into Excel, it really helps you to walk through these tools. It’s significantly less expensive than Minitab and our customers are able to dive in and execute with those tools really quickly. The last area that I wanted to dive in with technology is really on how we’re trying to use our AI tools to help streamline the PPAP process. And for us, we struggled initially to try and find, okay, what’s the application? Because our goal is not to just use AI for the sake of AI, instead we’re trying to find real efficiencies and real time savers. And so for many job shops, their control plans and their PFMEAs and process flows are really the same from part to part, except it might only go to three of the processes within their building or 10 of the processes out of the 15 that they have available.
Say this one goes to the lathe, but the next one goes to the mill, it doesn’t have to hit the lathe. And we have a different control plan and FMEA around that. And so we’ve been able to build some AI tools that take some global PFMEAs and control plans, allow the user to select exactly what processes that this job’s going to go to, and generate a control plan, an FMEA, and a process flow diagram. Doing that is really strong and can help your team to speed up that side of the process. We always say, “Hey, I don’t think AI is giving you the perfect answer, but it’s getting you 80% of the way there, 90% of the way there.” And that really would speed your team up rather than have to create a new control plan every time. If we’re starting from a good part of the way there, your team’s going to be able to deliver that much more quickly.
The other area where we’re seeing AI as being really strong is on the PPAP review side. And so we’ve built some tools that allow our customers to enter all the items that they’re going to upload with the PPAP, select the level of PPAP that they’re trying to deliver and have AI that already is programmed on the guidelines for the PPAP requirements and it will analyze all those documents looking for things that are missing, looking for errors, looking for a CPK that doesn’t match the customer expectations, all those kind of things. We think this is a really strong tool, especially as you mature and you have problems with your submittals, you’re able to continue to tune that tool in, use AI to do that review and know before you submit it, catch those things before you submit it. So use AI to act as that customer check before you deliver it.
So that’s been a really strong approach and we think has really great applications for helping you to pass the PPAP on the first time. So looking back, we always ask, how are you planning with your customer, with your quoting team, with your sales team to make sure that we’re capturing the cost of those PPAPs on the upfront? If you are charging, how are you charging? How are you going to layer in those costs? Are you able to capture the time that your team is spending, creating the documentation that the customer is looking for? Because it’s really critical that you do. And then what tools are out there? And we like to dive into discuss software, how do we speed up the bubble print and the first article process, QI macros, how do we have really successful capability studies, gauge R&Rs, when they’re appropriate, and do it in a way that’s very simple.
And then lastly, how can we use AI to start to streamline our processes, check them on the back end and make sure we’re getting really good results? If you have ideas for us, if you have, “Hey, I would love a PPAP tool or I would love an AI tool that would help us to do this, drop it in the comments.” If you’re charging for PPAPs, let’s have that discussion, love to learn more about what other manufacturers are doing and see how we can help build tools for you and for your teams to help get these done faster. This only helps the OEM, this only helps you to get the jobs done and to be successful. So thank you. Looking forward to learning more and working with everybody as we continue to deliver these video sessions. Thanks.
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