Methods to Ensure that we are Purchasing what we've Designed

somashekar

Staff member
Super Moderator
#11
We are doing exactly that. Designers plan the specifications and the purchaser only buys the products according to the specifications.

What do you do in your design reviews? We call up a meeting and the attendees are project manager, design manager, designer and quality engineer. We take the drawings and we have a check list. We go through the list and review the drawings according to the list. We make the markings to the drawings and the designer makes the corrections. Then we have a follow-up. The design review in our organization is for making sure the plans are correct, then we give the BOM's etc. to purchasing. Ideas how to make this different/more effective?

BTW, this is a great site, engineers helping each others!
Your methodology is correct, however what can be limiting you is your own checklist. The required technical depth and understanding must be used to make sure the plans are correct and further if it is the checklist that guides you, then you have to update the checklist from the various project learning.
 
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M

misu183

#12
Hello,
Related to your question... what would you do when you have thousands types of articles to purchase regularly?
To be realistic I cannot imagine your designer checking each time, every specification for each article to confirm if latest revision.
The way you intend to do could be possible for small businesses with low range of products / articles.
A database with specification/drawings and a correct bill of material would be more then OK to be sure you always have the latest info about goods to be purchased.
This data base would be administrated by your designer and your purchase department to have "read-only" rights.
Data base could be made in many ways as xls sheet, document management software or an MRP system.
It's your choice what you will use depending on the size of your organization, complexity of your processes and how much can you spend.
As long as specifications are available as electronic documents then control is ensured.
Important is that specifications must be available at a single data source.
When a document is printed out for internal/external use then a printing date&time + file path and footnote "this hard-copy is uncontrolled document" must be automatically printed on the paper.
The date of the purchase order (e-mail) and printing date of the paper would be enough to be sure that you are using latest file taken from this data base.
Of course the most critical job will be done by your designer which must maintain the data base up to date and for any revision made a file log must be available.
I hope my ideas above will be helpful.
 
H

High Fidelity

#13
Excellent answers, thank you! Yes, our organization is quite small. The check list is composed in co-operation with designers and project managers. I have been thinking about making a lessons learned database, where the project manager will fill 5 good things and 5 bad things about the project and with that I'm going to update the check list.

I think that it's designers responsibility to ensure that his plans are according to specifications. After all, he is the "mastermind" and he has the technical competence to make the optimal plans. Purchasers competence is in the buying/selecting suppliers field, and she should stay there. After all we have been doing power plants for 30 years (I have been here for few months) and the designers have the knowledge what kind of equipment we are buying and they know what to design.
 
M

misu183

#14
For a small bussiness an xls database sheet with "writing" and "read-only" rights (depending on types of users) would be more than OK.
Links in this xls sheet can be done with different files.
There are many ways to make this method suitable for your business and this is depending on specific of your activity.
 

somashekar

Staff member
Super Moderator
#15
After all, he is the "mastermind" and he has the technical competence to make the optimal plans.
...the designers have the knowledge what kind of equipment we are buying and they know what to design.
You think so ... ???
Do not take it on the face value.
There is more to it than you can see. Your problems would have never surfaced if what you say was so true.
 
H

High Fidelity

#16
Of course I meant it how it should go in the way it should go. That is the aim.

But what value would the purchaser bring to the review? It isn't the purchasers responsibility to ensure that the designers technical decisions are correct, purchaser only buys according to the plans. Purchasers responsibility is to buy the products as cost effective as possible and ensure that the products arrive at planned time.

I think that the purchaser can only ensure the product validity by ensuring it from the designer. Purchaser doesn't have enough competence to question the designers technical view, at least in our organization they don't.
 
R

RLewing

#17
The purchaser (or sourcing manager) is of great value in the review. His/her task is to see that the design engineer has documented enough information to select from different variations the suppliers usually have.

Also, if the review really has project manager, design manager, designer and quality engineer attending, there usually is (should be) useful discussion about what is really important for the final product.
 
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