Management system guidance
8.3 Design and development of products and services
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8.3.2 Design and development planning
This requirement expands upon ISO 9001:2008 Clause 7.3.1 – Design and Development Planning. It is likely that if your organization already complies with this clause, you will already be undertaking the activities required by ISO 9001:2015 Clause 8.3.1.
You should seek and record evidence that your organization has considered the explicitly referenced considerations relating to the design and development process set out above. If you need a procedure and forms to help control your business's design and development process, click here.
You should also ensure that your organization has retained documented information to confirm the identified design and development requirements were met and that design reviews were undertaken. You should have an overall plan for how you undertake your designs.
Design management plans
Design planning must specify the design and development stages, activities and tasks; responsibilities; timeline and resources; specific tests, validations and reviews; and outcomes. There are many tools available for planning ranging from a simple checklist to complex software. Control product design and development planning activities including:
- Scope of the design e.g. customer requirements (see 8.2.2) design rationale, design assumptions, objectives, complexity, size, detail, timescales, criticality, constraints, risks, producibility, accessibility, maintainability;
- Stages of the design process, distinct activities and review e.g. work breakdown structure, work packages (tasks, resources, responsibilities, content, inputs/outputs), concept design, preliminary design, detail design, design review gates preliminary design review, detail design review, critical design review);
- Verification and validation activities comprising checks, trials, tests, simulations, demonstrations required to ensure requirements are met;
- Assignment of responsibilities and authorities e.g. job profiles, CVs, accountability statements, delegation of authority, levels of approval, register of authority and approvals, authorized signatories;
- Internal and external resources such as knowledge acquisition, people, competency, investment, funding, facilities, equipment, innovation, technology, interested parties (customers, external providers, research establishments), information (principles, standards, rules, codes of practice);
- Organizational interfaces such as personnel and functions e.g. sales, project management, production, procurement, quality, finance, customers, end users;
- Levels of control required or implied by interested parties (customers, regulators, end users etc.) e.g. customer acceptance, safety checks, risk management, verification/validation activity, product certification;
- Required documented information e.g. design plan, design reviews, design outputs (specifications, schemes, drawings, models, data, reports), control plans, certificates.
The design management plan typically includes specific quality practices, assessment methodology, record-keeping, documentation requirements, resources, etc., and usually reference the sequence of activities relevant to a particular design or design category. The design management plan references applicable codes, standards, regulations and specifications. and describe the interfaces with different groups or activities that provide, or result in, an input to the design and development process.
Each design activity is planned, divided into phases, and tasks assigned to competent and skilled design personnel equipped with adequate tools and resources. Design management plans are documented and updated as the design evolves.
As required, at the commencement of a design package, the Design Manager is required to complete a Design Management Plan (DMP) which will include at a minimum:
- Confirmation of the standards baseline used for the work being undertaken and an explanation of how compliance to this baseline will be demonstrated;
- An organisation chart with defined responsibilities for all staff with direct involvement in design or with a potential impact on safety;
- Skills matrix to define the competence of individuals with ‘prepare’, ‘check’ and ‘approval’ duties;
- Scope definition and interface identification including key issues and operational requirements;
- Projected output, timelines, milestones, and defined deliverables;
- Stated processes and procedures to ensure acceptable quality assurance will be demonstrated and records maintained (specifically the formal Assurance Gates);
- Processes and procedures to be used to ensure compliance with the engineering safety management;
- The design review process, both single (SDR) and multi-design consultant (IDR) reviews and stakeholder intervention, prior to the Assurance Gate Reviews at 20%, 60% & 100% design completion stages;
- Explanation of how compliance with input requirements will be demonstrated.
Although the standard does not require a documented procedure, the design process needs to demonstrate how the process is controlled and planned. The organization, however, will need to provide some type of objective evidence as to what the planning activities include. This can be accomplished with the use of time-lines, Gantt charts or any other planning method such as Microsoft project manager.
In addition, auditors would likely want to see objective evidence of how the interfaces between other processes are managed, either through statements, or in associated procedures, process mapping, and matrix approach or in the time line planning.
Organizational and technical interfaces between different functions and departments that contribute to the design and development process are defined and the necessary information documented, transmitted and regularly reviewed.
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