Back Optional Design Gates in a Product Development Process within Automotive
How do you organize your design reviews?
A design is typically the result of a cross functional communication and cooperation between stakeholders from project management,
research and development, sales, manufacturing, supply chain management and quality.
Therefore, it would be a mistake to look for the causes of design flaws solely within a design department.
Apart from the technical functions, a product design is impacted by the manufacturing capabilities of a company and its suppliers,
which also drive cost and quality. With a high product complexity, multiple manufacturing locations and global suppliers,
the amount of specialized knowledge increases. In a small company, a designer may still have the overview of a company’s capabilities,
however, in bigger companies, the knowledge is collected and made accessible by specialists from designated departments.
While a design is discussed continuously with all stakeholders, a formal design review gives the reviewer an opportunity to challenge
a design in terms of innovation, cost and quality before major spendings for testing or tooling are done. It also shows the quality
of the cooperation within a company, as well as with its suppliers. These reviews require a cross functional team, which is per definition
not part of the actual team that designed the product.
Instead of planning design reviews as milestones within a project development, they can also be planned as gates.
These gates are additional to the project gate reviews from a product development process.
This emphasizes the importance of a design review, as it is then done by a cross functional management team.
To handle the enormous amount of data, it is recommended to have a software which coordinates and documents the informational flow
within the team, as well as with management.
