1.0 Why it comes first
The document every other document quotes
A Process Flow Diagram looks like the simplest deliverable in the package. It is also the one that determines whether the rest of the package is worth anything. The PFMEA can only analyze the steps the flow contains. The Control Plan can only control what the PFMEA analyzed. A step missing here is a risk nobody assesses and a control nobody writes.
The steps that go missing are predictable: manual deburr between operations, the wash before inspection, the move to an outside processor and back, the rework loop that everyone knows about, the temporary re-tooling that has been temporary for two years.
Mapped from the floor, not from the folder
AiroQue starts with the released routing and then reconciles it against how the work is performed. That reconciliation is usually a short conversation with manufacturing engineering, a lead, or whoever knows where the parts really go. The output is a flow that a supplier quality engineer can walk with, and that matches what they will see.
Interfaces are part of the process
Aerospace processes cross boundaries constantly — between cells, between buildings, between your plant and a special processor, between you and the customer's inspection. Those handoffs are where identification, traceability and condition-of-supply problems appear, so they get shown as interfaces rather than left implicit.
- Deliverable
- Process Flow Diagram covering the scope agreed, with operation references and interface points
- Typical inputs
- Released routing, drawing or model, outside-processing detail, and a walkthrough or call with manufacturing
- Formats
- Visio, Lucidchart, Excel-based flow, PDF, or a linear flow table for PFMEA use
- Starting price
- $500
- Scales with
- Number of operations, number of external processes, rework and inspection loops, notation requirements
- Feeds
- Directly into PFMEA and Control Plan development
- Revision support
- Updated when routings change or operations are added, moved or outsourced
2.0 Coverage
What gets represented
Scope is agreed before work starts. A flow can cover one cell, one part number, or the full path from dock to dock.
Material and receipt
Receiving, material verification, material identification, incoming inspection, storage and kitting — including how material identity is maintained through the process.
Manufacturing operations
Each production operation in sequence, with the equipment or cell noted, plus setups and secondary operations that carry their own risk.
Special and outside processing
Heat treat, plating, painting, NDT, welding and other special processes, shown with the ship-out and receive-back points that bound them.
Inspection operations
In-process inspection, final inspection and test points, shown where they occur rather than collected at the end of the diagram.
Rework and rejection
Rework loops, re-inspection paths, scrap and rejection points, and the return path for product held at an outside processor.
Assembly through shipping
Assembly, testing, final inspection, preservation, packaging and shipping, including customer-specified packaging requirements where they apply.
3.0 Tailoring
Notation, granularity and numbering to match your world
A flow diagram is only useful at the level of detail its readers need. That level is a decision, and it is yours.
One process, several possible drawings
The same manufacturing process can be drawn as a ten-box overview for a management review or a sixty-step map for risk analysis. AiroQue agrees the level with you before drawing anything, and can deliver more than one view of the same process.
Notation and symbols
Standard flowchart symbols, ASME-style process charting, swimlane format by department or cell, or a simple linear format if that is what your PFMEA form expects.
Level of granularity
Operation-level for a program overview, or step-level within an operation where the risk lives in setup, handling and in-process transitions.
Operation numbering
Matched to your router, traveller or ERP operation numbers so that the flow, the PFMEA and the Control Plan can be cross-referenced without a translation table.
Department and cell naming
Your plant's actual names for areas, cells and departments — not generic labels that nobody on the floor would recognize.
Tooling and software
Delivered in the software you maintain documents in, so your team can revise it later without buying anything or asking AiroQue to make small edits.
Multiple part numbers
For part families, one flow can be built with variant branches, or separate flows can be issued per configuration — whichever your customer's documentation structure requires.
4.0 Adjacent services
What this document feeds
Start with the flow
If the documentation package is being built from scratch, this is the least expensive place to start and the one that determines the quality of everything after it.