Production Part Approval Process (PPAP) is one of the important automotive industry quality management processes that enables suppliers to ensure that their process is meeting customer specification. There are not many empirically-based organisational capability frameworks that are available when it comes to translating PPAP practices. The purpose of this study is to develop an Evidence based PPAP Approval Capability Framework which aims to evaluate the competitiveness of suppliers in the Malaysian auto industry using PPAP. A preliminary framework was developed based on the literature and validated in the responses to the questionnaire from 88 Malaysian automotive manufacturing organisations. Cronbach's alpha was used for measuring the reliability of measurements and Spearman's rank-order correlation was used for establishing the validity of the proposed relationships at the level of ? ? 0.60 and p< 0.01. The three relationships were validated. The highest correlation was found between PPAP documentation integration and supplier quality data capture (? = 0.742, p < 0.01); and PPAP management control and supplier documentation practices with standard reaction plans for incapable processes (? = 0.630 and ? = 0.621, respectively; p < 0.01). No proposed relationship between PPAP Approval Capability and OEE was found that met the validation criterion. The study has an evidence-based capability framework to improve the PPAP practices that will make the suppliers more competitive in the automotive manufacturing industry in Malaysia.
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