How can requirement management improve the product creation process?
New hands-on framework helps control the entire E2E development process and sub-processes
Improve product creation processA major issue currently in product creation is coping with the right specification of functionalities. At Philips, where multi-technological product development is our daily trade, we are continuously challenged to achieve high product quality and reliability at an attractive price. It’s a constant battle how to cope with generating, interpreting and maintaining clearly defined and crystal clear stakeholder and product requirements. How control this meticulously precise process?
Modules may cause problems
In order to improve risk control and throughput times, design for excellence, six-sigma, agile and other methodologies have been introduced. Applying a modular product architecture enables re-use and parallel development of modules, but is apparently no guarantee for success. Often, poorly defined requirements for project, stakeholder, product and modules are causes for poor product quality. One of the main reasons appears to be inconsistency in understanding of how a function should manifest itself throughout a multidisciplinary team, and therefore the final product does not exactly deliver the functionality originally desired. We received many calls for help to better control the risks involved in requirement management. Experience has shown that correct requirement management can certainly contribute to reducing or even eliminating the constant tension in the development processes. But how?
New requirement management framework
Philips Engineering Solutions has developed a proven framework that supports all requirement management activities from A- Z (elicitation, development, management, etc.). This framework is being supported by a range of professional training modules, interactive workshops as well as an assessment tool. The framework guides development managers, quality assurance managers, reliability engineers as well as project leads. With the appropriate knowhow and the new assessment tool, issues in development processes will be discovered. Within a matter of days, they will find where bottlenecks lie! This allows them to take immediate remedial action. “Ultrasound believes in Design for reliability solutions. Ultrasound continues to demonstrate how to engage with I2M (Innovation to Market) and embed the new ways of working into real time product development. We are taking full advantage of the design for reliability training & coaching available via experts Jan de Laet and Sonja Aarts”, confirms Erik Eldracher, Deployment lead at Philips. “Together with the team, we tackled tough issues such as risk assessment, competitor benchmarking, Critical to Quality (CTQ) rationale, and requirements structuring within the CRS and SRS; while leveraging the benefits of training on elicitation and value proposition creation. A great example of teamwork that will deliver competitive products at a reduced cost; and, fundamentally increase the speed of our innovation!”
More information
Find out more about Design for reliability solutions
Or, do you need advice on the new framework and its application fields? Get in touch with our consultants Sonja Aarts or Jan de Laet by leaving a message below.