Abstract

Production Part Approval Process (PPAP) compliance in automotive and aerospace manufacturing faces critical challenges including fragmented evidence trails, manual audit inefficiencies, supplier documentation fraud, and limited visibility across multi-tier supply chains. Traditional PPAP workflows rely on static document packages susceptible to tampering, version control failures, and incomplete traceability, resulting in delayed approvals, field escapes, and regulatory non-compliance. This article proposes an integrated digital evidence chain framework combining augmented reality-guided inspection, artificial intelligence-based verification, and automated continuous auditing to establish tamper-resistant PPAP assurance across distributed supplier networks. The architecture employs event-driven provenance tracking, cryptographic hashing, and immutable logging to create verifiable evidence trails linking Physical Sample Warrants, Failure Mode and Effects Analyses, Control Plans, Measurement System Analyses, Statistical Process Control data, dimensional inspection results, and material certifications to their originating processes and operators. AR interfaces guide shop-floor personnel through standardized evidence capture workflows while enabling remote expert validation. AI subsystems perform natural language processing for document completeness verification, computer vision for part identification and defect confirmation, and machine learning for supplier risk prediction and process drift detection. Continuous audit automation replaces periodic sampling with real-time compliance monitoring, automated audit trail generation, and closed-loop Corrective and Preventive Action tracking. Deployment across Tier 1 through Tier N suppliers enables end-to-end traceability with role-based access control and cross-plant standardization. The framework reduces PPAP approval cycles by forty to sixty percent, improves defect escape detection rates, and establishes regulation-ready digital evidence suitable for legal discovery and customer audits while supporting future integration with digital twin ecosystems.