"Introduction The purpose of this manual is to communicate to organizations (internal and external) and suppliers@ common Product Quality Planning and Control Plan guidelines developed jointly by Chrysler@ Ford and General Motors. This manual provides guidelines designed to produce a product quality plan@ which will support the development of a product or service that will satisfy the customer (see Section 1.6). The following terms@ used in this edition are used to describe the supply chain. The term ""organization"" refers to the unit to which these guidelines apply. The term ""supplier"" replaces the term subcontractor that was used in the First Edition. Some of the expected benefits in using these guidelines are: ? A reduction in the complexity of product quality planning for the customers and organizations. ? A means for organizations to easily communicate product quality planning requirements to suppliers. This reference manual contains guidelines that support the requirements as described in ISO/TS 16949 and applicable customer-specific requirements. All forms in this manual are provided as examples only. The purpose is to assist the organization??s product quality planning team in developing the appropriate communication forms to support meeting customer requirements@ needs@ and expectations. The Product Quality Planning Cycle shown on the facing page is a graphic depiction of a typical program. The various phases are sequenced to represent planned timing to execute the functions described. The purpose of the Product Quality Planning Cycle is to emphasize: ? Up-front planning. The first three quarters of the cycle are devoted to up-front product quality planning through product/process validation. ? The act of implementation. The fourth quarter is the stage where the importance of evaluating the output serves two functions: to determine if customers are satisfied@ and to support the pursuit of continual improvement. Depicting product quality planning as a cycle illustrates the never-ending pursuit of continual improvement that can only be achieved by taking the experience in one program and applying that acquired knowledge to the next program. 1"