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Product Development Process
Product Development Process
Product Development Process
Unless identified otherwise, suppliers are expected to be involved at the Concept Phase of each product. This early involvement is critical to our mutual success. As the product moves from the Concept Phase to the Development and into the Production, BHT and the Supplier are refining the component to provide product excellence to our customer.
Concept Phases often times consist of a Request for Quote (RFQ). Provided with the RFQ is a BHT Envelope Drawing, Development Specification and a Statement of Work (SOW) or Required Data List (RDL). The Envelope Drawing provides the overall size, interface requirements, and sometimes functionality and qualification requirements. The Development Specification provides the performance requirements, acceptance criteria and qualification requirements. The SOW/RDL provides the task description of the work effort as well and the data delivery requirements.
The supplier is expected to verify all of the requirements of the product specifications and documentation shall be delivered to BHT for approval. After approval of the design and approval of the verification documents, the supplier must be responsible to produce products that meet all engineering drawings and specifications. In order to maintain these quality expectations, the supplier shall establish and maintain a system to assure that only the latest approved applicable drawing and specifications are used. It is the responsibility of the supplier to periodically review and verify that the latest copies of all approved drawings and specifications are available and fully understood.
During the entire phase of the Product Development, the Supplier may be expected to: attend design reviews, provide expertise in product material composition(s), and manufacturing of materials; participate fully in simultaneous engineering activities to prove materials and manufacturing processes to and through production; provide support in sample/prototype builds, participate in Integrated Product Teams (IPT) and provide documentation to fulfill the qualification requirements.
The supplier must have a process for the identification and management of potential risks to ensure proper supply of part and materials to the customer. The intent of this process is to proactively address risk.
The supplier's Risk Assessment process shall include a periodic assessment and review of all possible risk. The process shall analyze risks associated with both facilities and personnel, considering issues such as:
- A. Product, facility or individual skill uniqueness
- B. Critical process element susceptibility to disruptive damage
- C. Susceptibility to natural phenomena (i.e. flood, earthquake, etc)
- D. Second tier supplier related issues
- E. Hazardous Material Reporting in a IMDS
- F. New product or new supplier for a product
The output of this assessment shall be used to identify where action is required. The assessment shall also include an estimation of potential downtime in a major catastrophe.