PD Engineering Sign-off Procedure Establishment And Application

The article describes the establishment of product engineering sign off procedure,and describes the application and the role in vehicle product development program. Inthe article it has a study to the current status and application method for auto enterpriseproduct engineering sign off.Along with the rapid development of Chinese auto industry, all the domestic autocompanies are continuously shortening the new product developemnt period andspeeding up the new product launch so as to occupy the market rapidly. While it causeslots of problems, for example, the new product is launched and delivered to thecustomers with issues, resulting in the deterioration of the customer satisfaction andthe potential customer churn. Being aware of the severity of the problem and its badresult, in the recent several years the auto companies begin to take the sign offprocedure to control the issues during the program development process, so that therisk of the issues can be recognized and controlled in advance during the programdevelopment process, and the program development can be progressed smoothly andon schedule.The content of the article includes the preparation of the product engineering signoff, the process control of the product engineering sign off, the establishment and trialcase of the product engineering sign off procedure, which are as below:I. The preparation of the product engineering sign off. It is to evaluate the wholeprogram by sign off evaluation report, customer attribute verification, major risk/minorrisk, design verification test total status, design verification test-durability/erosion/regulation verification, design verification test-power train calibration, deviationstatus/deviation list, design change status, AIMS issue status, customer servicepreparation status, subjective drive evaluation status and appearance approval statusand so on, and it is reported to the program manager and company executives forreview and approval by all kinds of deliverables. It divides the program team membersinto different functional group, whose roles and responsibilities are set according to thecomponents they are responsible for, so that each group are responsible for their own delivery and attribute achievement, the responsibility and the person responsibleare clear, the roles and responsibilities of the team members are clear and the target isclear as well, and it can meet the program requirement finally.II. The process control of the product engineering sign off. It is to control theproduct sign off process by establishing the product engineering sign off risk controlprocedure chart, product engineering sign off target, risk assessment criteria andsubjective attribute sign off criteria. According to the program specific target(ARL/other target) and common requirement (attribute/structure/standard requirement),it is to evaluate the issue risk status during the program and confirm the issue risk level,so as to make the action and plan. According to the program level and developmentperiod, the programs are divided into13different levels, and the product engineeringsign off target is set so that each functional team member can pointedly fix his ownissue that he is responsible for. It is to evaluate the comparison between the risk statusand the target and to evaluate the impact to the program from five kinds of risks, whichare unverified product risk, major risk, minor risk, risk of no-action-taken due tospecial approval for the program, risk of meeting all the targets. It is to evaluate theprogram prototype current total status by customer perspective from comfort, handlingand so on. So that it can control the whole process effectively.III. The establishment and trial case of the product engineering sign off procedure.There is different sign off procedure and leaders with different level to sign off andapprove according to different program level. The purpose for different level programto follow different sign off procedure is to meet all kinds of different requirement forprogram development and to meet company strategy requirement. And in N900program trial case, the program team follow the product engineering sign off procedureand deliver the confirmed review result according to the procedure requirement andspecification, and compare it with the program initial target to check if it meets therequirement or not, so as to gurantee the program development timing and clarify theworking direction and thought for the next step. Thus the program can be conducted onschedule and achieve the program initial targets, the new product can meet thecustomer requirements after launch and finally improve the company product market competitiveness and market share.