28. The Production Control Plan as Strategic Tool for Audits

This paper attempts to demonstrate the strategic necessity of creating and implementing a production control plan in the expanding global competitiveness of the automobile industry to improve quality and efficiency. Using management tools relevant to the organization's needs in today's competitive environment has become a strategic concern for businesses (Goicoechea Itziar in Quality Management in the Automotive Industry, pp. 619–632, 2012) It has been established that a control plan is a mandatory requirement of the Production Part Approval Process (PPAP) or the International Automotive Task Force (IATF)/16949 standard and a strategic tool for performing audits in the production line. If we talk about either audit: process layer audit, process audit, or system audit, the control plan is an essential document for starting, documenting, and performing an audit. The correct elements of the control plan and its application can be the key to any successful result. The requirements for creating a control plan, the various aspects of a control plan, and how to use a control plan are analyzed.