What Is PPAP? The Production Part Approval Process in Plain Words

By Yamm Labs · Updated September 2026 · 6 min read

A quality engineer at a small press shop in Manesar opens a new purchase order for a bracket. Most of it is familiar: part number, drawing revision, price, delivery. One line is not: PPAP Level 3 required before the first production shipment. The owner walks over with two questions: what is PPAP, and how long will it take? The engineer knows the acronym. What the owner wants is the plain version, the list of what has to be produced, and who decides when it is good enough.

What does PPAP prove to an automotive customer?

PPAP answers one question for the buyer: if we start ordering this part at volume, will every lot match the drawing? AIAG describes the manual as the industry standard for making sure engineering design record and specification requirements are met consistently, on parts made during a real production run at the production rate.

That last condition matters. Parts made slowly by the best operator on a tuned machine prove very little. PPAP evidence is meant to come from the actual line, the actual tooling, the actual gauges and the actual people who will run the job. It is not a design approval and it is not a one-off inspection report. It is approval of the process that makes the part, which is why a new tool, a new site or a new sub-supplier usually means a fresh submission.

What goes into a PPAP submission?

The AIAG manual lists eighteen elements. They fall into three groups, and knowing the groups tells you where the work sits.

The planning documents are linked. Every step in the process flow should appear in the PFMEA, and every control the PFMEA relies on should appear in the Control Plan. Our APQP, PFMEA and Control Plan questions page covers that chain in detail. The physical evidence cannot be written at a desk; it exists only after parts are made and measured.

Which PPAP submission level will your customer ask for?

The manual defines five submission levels. They control how much of the package is sent to the customer, not how much work the supplier does: at every level the supplier is expected to hold the full set of records.

• Level 1. The warrant alone, plus an appearance report where the part has appearance requirements.
• Level 2. The warrant with sample parts and a limited set of supporting data.
• Level 3. The warrant with sample parts and the complete supporting data. This is the default at most customers for new parts and engineering changes.
• Level 4. The warrant plus whatever else the customer defines.
• Level 5. The complete package, reviewed at the supplier’s plant.

Who sets the PPAP rules: AIAG, IATF 16949 or your customer?

PPAP is an automotive industry standard, and three bodies shape it, in a fixed order of authority. AIAG publishes the manual that defines the method. The International Automotive Task Force publishes IATF 16949, the automotive quality management standard, which requires a product approval process that meets the customer’s requirements. The customer then writes its own customer-specific requirements, and those override the manual’s defaults.

The IATF’s public list of customer-specific requirements carries global carmakers such as Ford, Volkswagen, Stellantis and Renault. A customer that is not on that list states its rules in its own supplier quality manual, its drawing notes and its purchase order. That is where you find the submission level, the warrant format, any portal upload and any extra forms.

This order drives one design decision in how we build a pack: the customer’s requirements are read before a single document is drafted, and the sequence is fixed from there.

• First, the inputs. Confirm the drawing revision, every approved change, the submission level and the customer’s forms.
• Second, the linked documents. Process flow, then PFMEA, then Control Plan, written from the confirmed route.
• Third, the evidence. The plant runs the trial, measures parts, completes the gauge study and records capability.
• Last, the warrant. The supplier’s official signs only when every other element is complete and consistent.

Drafting in any other order is the most common reason a pack comes back: a PFMEA written against an old revision, or a Control Plan that misses a characteristic the customer flagged as special.

Should you write PPAP in-house or use a documentation desk?

This is the decision most small suppliers face. Ownership never moves: the supplier signs the warrant and answers for every page. The writing can move. A plant with a free APQP engineer usually keeps it in-house. A plant whose only engineer is also firefighting the line can hand the planning documents to an outside desk and keep the trial, the measurements and the signature. Our AI PPAP generator explainer shows how that split works when the drafting is automated, and the PPAP documentation FAQ answers the eighty questions that usually follow.

On cost and time, PPAP Desk runs a five-day pilot on two live parts, with pricing that starts at ₹2,000 per report, no retainer and no software setup. The evidence and the warrant stay with the plant.

PPAP does not approve a part. It approves the process that will make the next ten thousand of them.

What is PPAP in practice? A worked example

Go back to the press shop in Manesar and its new bracket. Here is how the order of work plays out on a Level 3 request. This is an illustration built from the scenario in the opening, not a record of a real submission, and it uses no real part data.

Inputs. The engineer checks that the drawing revision on the purchase order matches the drawing in hand, lists any engineering changes and opens the customer’s supplier quality manual. The manual confirms Level 3, names the warrant format and says whether the pack goes up on a portal.

Planning documents. The engineer, or an outside desk, writes the process flow for the bracket: blanking, forming, piercing, inspection and packing. Each step goes into the PFMEA with its failure modes and controls. Every control the PFMEA relies on appears in the Control Plan, with the characteristic, the gauge and the check frequency.

Evidence. The plant runs the job on the production press, with the production die and the operators who will run it. Parts are measured against every drawing dimension, the gauge study is completed and the initial process study is recorded. Material certificates and any performance tests are filed.

Warrant. The owner, as the supplier’s authorised official, signs the warrant only when every element agrees with every other. The pack goes to the customer with sample parts, and the customer approves or sends it back with reasons.

A step-by-step checklist for a first submission

Use this list the day a purchase order asks for a submission. It follows the fixed sequence above and adds the checks that catch most returns.

1. Confirm the drawing revision on the purchase order and the drawing match, and list every approved change.
2. Read the customer’s requirements: the submission level, the warrant format, any portal and any extra forms.
3. List the special characteristics the customer has flagged on the drawing or in its manual.
4. Write the process flow from the real route on your shop floor, step by step.
5. Build the PFMEA and Control Plan from that flow, and check that every special characteristic has a control.
6. Plan the trial run on production tooling, at the production rate, with the people who will run the job.
7. Measure and test: dimensional results, gauge study, capability study, material and performance results.
8. Cross-check and sign: every document matches the others and the drawing, then the authorised official signs the warrant.

Keep a copy of the full pack whatever level is requested. The level controls what is sent, not what the supplier is expected to hold.

Common mistakes on a first submission

These are the errors that most often send a first pack back to the supplier.

• Working from an old drawing revision. One superseded dimension can make the PFMEA, the Control Plan and the dimensional results all wrong at once.
• Missing a special characteristic. A characteristic the customer flagged must appear in the Control Plan with a control that matches the PFMEA.
• Running the trial off the real line. Parts from a prototype tool or a slow, hand-tuned run do not show the production process.
• Documents that disagree. A process step that appears in the flow but not in the PFMEA, or a gauge in the Control Plan that differs from the one used for results, is easy for a reviewer to spot.
• Signing the warrant early. The signature says the pack is complete and correct. Sign it last.
• Skipping the customer’s manual. Its rules override the AIAG defaults. Read it before drafting, and confirm the current version with the customer’s quality contact.

How to brief your team or a documentation desk

Whether the writing stays in-house or goes to an outside desk, the brief is the same. Share the drawing and its revision, the purchase order, the customer’s supplier quality manual and any customer forms. Add the actual process route, the machines and tools used, and the gauges available on the floor.

Name who in the plant will run the trial, who will measure the parts and who will sign the warrant. Agree the date of the trial run first, because the evidence cannot be produced before it. Ask the writer for the process flow, PFMEA and Control Plan as linked drafts, checked against each other before the trial, so the run tests the documents as well as the parts.

People also ask

Is PPAP the same as APQP?

No. APQP is the planning method a supplier follows while developing a part and its process. PPAP is the approval step at the end, where the outputs of that planning and the evidence from a production run are submitted to the customer.

Who signs the Part Submission Warrant?

The supplier’s authorised official signs it, and the customer’s representative approves it. A consultant or documentation desk can draft the form, but it cannot sign it.

When does a supplier need to submit PPAP again?

Usually whenever something changes the process behind an approved part, such as an engineering change, new tooling, a move to another site or a new sub-supplier. The customer’s own requirements set the exact triggers, so read its supplier manual first.

What does PPAP stand for?

Production Part Approval Process. Each word matters. Production means the parts come from the real process, not a prototype. Part means the approval is for a specific part number at a specific drawing revision. Approval means the customer, not the supplier, gives the final decision, recorded against the signed Part Submission Warrant.

Does a supplier need IATF 16949 certification to submit PPAP?

Not always. The customer asks for the submission, and a supplier without certification can still be asked for one. IATF 16949 matters because it makes a customer-defined product approval process part of a certified supplier’s quality system. Either way, the customer’s requirements decide the level and the forms.

What happens if the customer rejects a PPAP submission?

The customer returns it with reasons, and the supplier corrects the documents, the process or both before resubmitting. Production shipments usually wait for approval, though the customer’s own rules decide what, if anything, may ship in the meantime. Read the rejection notes line by line; most point to a document that disagrees with the drawing or with another document.

Is PPAP required for Tier-2 suppliers?

Often, yes, because Tier-1 suppliers pass their customers’ requirements down the chain. The Tier-1 decides what it needs from its own suppliers and at what level. Our guide on whether PPAP is mandatory for Tier-2 suppliers covers how that flows down in practice.

How many documents are in a PPAP package?

The AIAG manual lists eighteen elements, from the design record to the Part Submission Warrant. Not every element applies to every part; a Design FMEA, for example, is needed only if the supplier owns the design. The submission level decides how many of the elements are sent, but the supplier is expected to hold the full set of records at every level.

Who can prepare PPAP documents for a small supplier?

The supplier’s quality or APQP engineer usually does, and the planning documents can be drafted by an outside desk. The trial run, the measurements and the signature stay with the plant. Our article on who prepares PPAP documents at a Tier-2 supplier sets out the usual split.