Measuring Design Process

[harley123]

We are a small manufacturing company. We do our own designs. I am looking for a measurement for our design process. We have looked at how long it take to to get approval for a new design as well as how many of the new designs we actually get approval for and produce. However this process in our company can take several months if not longer. I guess my question is do we have to have our measurement off of new customers or can I make the measurement have to do with changes made after the product is put into production.

Thanks

 

[yodon]

What's the goal for taking these 'measurements'? How will you use the data to determine effectiveness and/or improve? Are the designs so homogeneous that comparing time (to get approval) between two is meaningful?

 

[harley123]

Yodon,what we were doing had no real meaning for us. I was thinking of measuring if we have to make a change to the product after it was released to see if our design team was being effective.

 

[Bev D]

I echo Yodon's question regarding purpose of the 'measurement'

Measuring 'compliance' to timeline alone can be very destructive.
typically measuring - and more importantly making improvements - is far more effective in improving Quality, Cost and compliance to timeline.

some measures regarding quality that are insightful and helpful:
- how much additional revenue was generated by the new design in relationship to it's cost to develop
- How many problems/defects were detected post launch and how severe were they
- how many engineering change orders were necessary prior to launch

some things to think about...

 

[AndyN]

Classically, design and development of new products can be measured by a) the changes after release (from suppliers or your own manufacturing) which you aren't PAID for by customers. You can also measure time and budget. Another way is to look at the number of iterations within the testing and validation phases - how many times do you test and then retest due to failures, in each phase?