CQI-27 Casting System Assessment

Significance and Application of CQI-27 Casting System Assessment

The new AIAG CQI-27 2nd Edition was released in March 2018.

The North American automotive association AIAG (Automotive Industry Action Group) is the publisher of the CQI-Standards (“CQI” =Continuous Quality Improvement). Developed by AIAG's OEM and Supplier members, the goal of the Casting System Assessment is the development of a robust casting process that eliminates common root causes of casting defects and must be carried out at least once a year.

The CQI-27 Special Process: Casting System Assessment 2nd edition provides requirements for foundry suppliers of OEM automotive castings. It is a collective effort by OEM and Tier 1 customers to create common process requirements for foundries, requirements which our shared experiences tell us will benefit the foundry industry for their OEM automotive customers.  The objective is to have robust processes which minimize the risk of casting defects in automotive applications.

CQI-27 has been substantially revised based upon feedback from users of the 1st Edition.

Enhancements in the 2nd Edition include:

• Tables with similar requirements have been consolidated.
• Tables added to cover more casting processes.
• More process content has been added.
• Unclear wording from the 1st Edition has been revised.
• Greater emphasis has been placed on content generally regarded as mandatory.
• Greater emphasis placed on deviations must be authorized by customer Product Engineering.
• Unused Columns, Rows, and Sheets are Not Protected in order to allow common Excel editing.

For an OEM, discussions with the foundries about expectations for full CQI-27 compliance will concentrate resources on specific subjects which are often the root cause for castings which fail to meet Product Engineering requirements. 

For a foundry, full compliance with CQI-27 is similar to reducing the RPNs on a PFMEA — the lower the RPN values, the less likely that customers will receive bad parts. Some of the requirements are defect prevention, and some are reduction of variation. All benefit quality metrics.