Design & Development Process - Graphic Design Work

S

stephenh

Hi guys,

Have my assessment coming up in the next few weeks and still concerned by our design processes. We are a small media company, with one graphic designer whos main job is layout design for promotional material, menus, magazines etc.

The way the system works is the account manager will book in a job, liaising with the client and communicating with the designer. The Account mgr or client will usually review/approve the design periodically before a final sign off via email of finished product pre production. Changes to artwork are stored as clearly identified updated versions in the job file.

Now I've tryed to get the designer to fill in a design planning sheet to plan the various design stages and deadlines etc, but it's not happening., he will do it half heartedly or not at all. I dont want to force it on him as if he doesnt use it correctly its just going to be paperwork for the sake of ISO and not useful to our company.

My question is how else can I satisfy the clause for design planning, particularly design stages and their subsequent review? I think the testing / proofing and approval procedures we have in place are robust enough.

Thanks in advance,

Stephen
 
D

Duke Okes

Re: Advice needed for Design & Development

Just a few options:
- See if the account manager would do it (after all, they're really the project manager)
- Educate the designer about the business value of ISO registration, and how the standard requires documentation of input, etc. Ask him/her how the requirements could be met (it doesn't require a form, simply a record).
- Leave it alone and let the registration auditor nail them. But make your concerns known during a management review held prior to the audit.
 

harry

Trusted Information Resource
Re: Advice needed for Design & Development

<snip> How else can I satisfy the clause for design planning, particularly design stages and their subsequent review? I think the testing / proofing and approval procedures we have in place are robust enough. <snip>
Hello Stephen,

First you need to understand that creative work and normal engineering designs are two completely different kettle of fish. If the creative juice aren't flowing, no (quality) work comes out of it.

The standard does not intend to be restrictive. It is interested in whether good practices such as inputs and reviews are carried out and approved by the relevant people so that no wasted efforts arise - something which I see you can justify through the Account managers liaison with the client.

With regards to schedule, a simple paragraph with completion date of project and expected completion dates for preliminary proposal and various drafts or milestones given by the Account manager should suffice. It's difficult getting these people to work to fix timetables (except completion dates) and auditors auditing this kind of business should know better.

If I were you, I would sit down and discuss with the designer and account manager and review/simplify your design process to suit reality. Any template from a typical engineering design department would not serve your needs unless substantially modified.
 

Stijloor

Leader
Super Moderator
Re: Advice needed for Design & Development

I agree with Harry. The seven steps (subclauses) in 7.3 would be too much and too restrictive for the graphic design process which typically moves very fast in a very short amount of time. However, when you look at the process closer, it is amazing how close the actual design process matches the overall intent of 7.3. My suggestion would be to produce a simple flow chart or similar to depict how a typical design is completed. Having worked with a number of graphic arts (printing-type) organizations, I can understand the concern of the designer; they do not want to be bothered with anything that may stifle their creativity. What Harry suggested will be a great compromise that should be acceptable to a CB auditor.

Stijloor.
 
C

CliffK

Re: Advice needed for Design & Development - Graphic Design Work.

Stijloor has it exactly right. Your "plan" should apply to all your projects.

Don't try to shift the unnecessary work to someone else in the organization. Just don't do it.
 
V

vanputten

Re: Advice needed for Design & Development - Graphic Design Work.

Where in 7.3 does ISO 9001 state that anything has to be written?

How can a verbal process based on the value of design verification and validation be restricting? It is restricting to make sure the output of the design meets the customer's requirements and the purpsoe for the product?

Understand the design process, know your inputs, know your ouputs, review them, verfiy and validate the output of the design process. Seems reasonable to me at any speed.

I suggest you and the desinger(s) critically read 7.3 together. Try to make sure you understand the terms used. See ISO 9000:2005.
 

Stijloor

Leader
Super Moderator
Re: Advice needed for Design & Development - Graphic Design Work.

Where in 7.3 does ISO 9001 state that anything has to be written?

How can a verbal process based on the value of design verification and validation be restricting? It is restricting to make sure the output of the design meets the customer's requirements and the purpsoe for the product?

Understand the design process, know your inputs, know your ouputs, review them, verfiy and validate the output of the design process. Seems reasonable to me at any speed.

I suggest you and the desinger(s) critically read 7.3 together. Try to make sure you understand the terms used. See ISO 9000:2005.

Excellent points Dirk!

Even though ISO 9001:2000, clause 7.3 does not require a "documented procedure" to describe this Design and Development process, there is still a requirement to maintain records. That may be another reason for resistance.

Stijloor.
 

Paul Simpson

Trusted Information Resource
Re: Advice needed for Design & Development - Graphic Design Work.

If the process is that simple describe it as such. If there is only one route for "designs" (although I'm not convinced this activity is design control in 9k terms - but that's another thread) then there is a generic "plan" that outlines what you have described and records are generated as you go.
  • Inputs are the customer requirements (e-mail?)
  • Outputs are the designs (artwork)
  • Review is any activity by account manager to approve artwork
  • Verification is review (above)
  • Validation is printed artwork

Hope this helps!
 
S

stephenh

Re: Advice needed for Design & Development - Graphic Design Work.

Thanks everyone for their replies, have gone over things with our designer and we can adhere to ISO without too much deviation from current working practises.

The records, which I gather are the important evidence which will be assessed, will be the e-mails, finished designs and every version leading up to finished design, as well as the approval and subsequent approval by the account manager.

The only remaining grey area is 7.3.1 - a)determine the design and development stages. Although there is no reference to keeping records (4.2.4), we are going to use a simple form which the designer will list the main stages during the briefing of the job with an account manager. An alternative is to put more detail into the job sheet which is a description of the job? Is any of this necessary?! Either way I hope that our somewhat limited design department will be good enough to pass ISO.

Thanks again for all your replies, just over two weeks to go to assessment, stress level is off the meter! No doubt more questions will follow :)
 
Top Bottom