What processes should I consider for my startup?When I think of all the processes that a company may need and use, it can be a bit overwhelming for a startup. With everything else going on in the R & D and Design phases, who has time to think about processes? The unfortunate thing is that if you don’t consider some of these fundamental building blocks, you could make a critical mistake because you have little control of what is happening. These mistakes could be very costly and potentially devastating to a small startup business. There’s an old saying that an ‘ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure’ that with a little time spent upfront, you can potentially save an immense amount of time (and money) on the backend if a mistake is prevented.I am not advocating a ‘stop the world’ mentality here by throwing up what some would consider roadblocks to completing specific tasks. Quite the contrary, and in fact, having some form of processes and inherent control will enhance overall productivity and promote closer working relations between the functional departments. I once sent out a BOM (bill-of-material) to our contract manufacturer that was not checked by Engineering after I had created it. Our CM received the BOM, reviewed it and had some questions. They called me and asked about the BOM in detail and as it turned out, I had the wrong part on it. This could have been a very costly mistake if they had installed the wrong part on our prototype circuit boards as they would have not functioned properly and quite possibly could have damaged other parts on the boards as well. (On this note, keep in the back of your mind that when I discuss Outsourcing, a Contract Manufacturer who asks questions is a very good thing. When they don’t asks questions, be very concerned). It was from this lack of control in our manufacturing process that brought us to forming a CCB (Change Control Board) with Engineering. There are many processes such as NPI, (New product introduction), FAI (First article inspection), MRB (Material review board) etc. that eventually will come about during the natural evolution of your business. Here are just a few of the more important processes you should consider implementing early on: 1) Change Control Board (CCB) View Change Control Board 2) Critical Design Review (CDR) View Critical Design Review 3) First Article Inspection (FAI) View First Article Inspection 4) New Product Development (NPD) View New Product Development
5) Design for Manufacturability/Testability (DFM/DFT)
View Design for Manufacturability/Testability
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