When products are designed and developed within the OEMs New Product Introduction (NPI) process, each supplier participating with the OEM contractually agrees and commits to provide components that meet specified Target Agreements (TA). Through quality maturation processes such as Environmental Cubing and Production Part Approval Process (PPAP), the aim for each supplier is to mature their manufacturing processes to a stable and capable condition before committing to full volume production.
With the complexity and the vast number of components making up today's automobiles, and their interactions with each other, a single "out-of-specification" component can create "knock on" quality issues which may become highly visible to the customer. It is, therefore very important to identify and rectify component issues before they reach final assembly, so that fundamental vehicle quality is not compromised. One method both OEM and supplier adopt to ensure compliant products and assemblies are being manufactured is to measure the products geometric shape. As mentioned earlier, the "fit and finish" of the final product plays a significant part to the customers perception to the brand and overall build quality.
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