Recently, Shougang’s Advanced Product Quality Planning (APQP) System was officially launched and put into operation. This system can realize the full-cycle information quality management and control and continuous improvement of new steel and iron products from planning to application, indicating that Shougang’s quality management for new product R&D has embarked on a new stage of the journey towards integrated digitalization.

Product innovation is an important way for enterprises to win the recognition of users and the market, and establishing and implementing a high-quality management system for new product R&D can bolster innovation. In the past, Shougang adopted the offline management method for the R&D of new steel and iron products, with most of the focus on project approval and conclusion management. However, this method makes it difficult to realize the management and sharing of process data, and it is not conducive to the reference and promotion of previous successful cases. In order to better utilize the system management efficiency of the structured method in APQP, the Shougang Research Institute of Technology established an APQP system development team in 2021, sounding the clarion call for the informatization research of product quality management.

APQP was originally developed and applied to meet the special needs of the automotive industry, and it is a technical specification more suitable for the development of automotive parts. When it is applied to iron and steel enterprises, it is necessary to establish a management model in line with the characteristics of the industry and enterprises. The research team first meticulously analyzed and interpreted the APQP Specifications, sorted out the business processes at all stages and tailored every element of Shougang’s new product R&D. The team successfully completed the development of the five major stages of the system, ten review processes, 61 functional modules and 93 interfaces, and initially realized the information management function of new product R&D in June 2023 through the joint efforts of multiple departments and disciplines.

From initial planning and design to development, production and even final user feedback and improvement, new product R&D involves multiple levels and systems of production, marketing and research. However, since the existing systems in each unit had different development frameworks and languages, cross-domain data interaction had become a key problem. In order to realize the interconnection between the APQP System and the sales system, procurement system, manufacturing system and Cold Rolling Company’s management and control system, the Shougang Research Institute of Technology cooperated with many units such as Beijing Shougang Co., Ltd., Shunyi Cold Rolling, Shougang Marketing Center and Beijing Shougang Automation Information Technology Co., Ltd. to carry out joint research. After the close coordination and whole-hearted cooperation of various units and departments, the team successfully broke through the barriers between the APQP System and other systems within only three months, and realized cross-domain data interaction under different development frameworks.

It is imperative to unswervingly promote technological innovation to become Shougang's first competitiveness, and improve quality and efficiency in the development of new products. In order to meet the information management needs of new product projects in 2024, the online testing of the APQP System began ahead of schedule at the end of 2023. Since the process line is long, the area is wide and there is a large amount of data in the system, the full-cycle interconnection test produced many detailed problems that needed to be solved urgently. Time was short, but the quality of the work could not be reduced. The project team carried forward the spirit of daring to work hard, withstood pressure, faced difficulties and completed 27 rounds of full-process tests within three weeks. All the problems were solved efficiently and with high quality, laying a solid foundation the system to be punctually launched.

The APQP System is an important tool for the intelligent management and control of new product R&D based on data fusion and resource sharing, and driven by production and scientific research needs. It realizes the unified and standardized management of the whole process of new product R&D in many units such as research institutes of technology, production bases and marketing centers, and will provide strong support for the overall improvement of the group's quality management efficiency.