Custom Product Development Process
Custom Product Development Process
Most of Aspen’s products are custom-made, tailored to meet the unique needs of our clients. Whether it’s a minor variation from our standard LCMs or a ground-up designed chiller, Aspen is dedicated to collaborating closely with our customers. We guide them through our engineering design and development phase gate process and manufacturing release process.
When you’re ready to begin, contact us with your requirements, and we’ll work closely with you, asking questions until we fully understand your needs and desires for your system. Together, we’ll discuss pricing and annual production volume requirements to ensure a perfect business fit.
In many cases, our clients require a feasibility prototype or one of our standard products on a short timeline. We excel at providing representative prototypes in as little as 4 weeks, facilitating control, integration, and familiarity with the system.
Once we’ve completed the initial feasibility analysis and prototyping stage, our Engineering Design and Development process adheres to the ISO 9001 standard, guaranteeing high-quality, reliable products. Our stage gate process begins with a customer-approved product specification, followed by preliminary and final design efforts, culminating in detailed design verification testing by Aspen. Customer validation testing then ensures satisfaction before we move to assembly and final product documentation.
Throughout this process, engineering review meetings are attended by representatives from engineering, purchasing, quality, manufacturing, and management. While customer attendance is encouraged, it’s not always necessary.
We’re committed to delivering exceptional solutions that meet and exceed our customers’ expectations. Get in touch today to discover how Aspen can bring your vision to life.
Aspen Systems Custom Product Development Process
Feasibility Analysis
Breadboard
- Begins with discussions of application and conception of potential approaches
- Produce and test a feasibility demonstration prototype
Engineering Design & Development
Prototype
- Define full product specification
- Preliminary design & analysis → Preliminary Design Review
- Final design and analysis → Critical Design Review
- Define verification and validation test plans
- Prototype build
- Design verification testing → Design Verification Review
- Customer validation testing
- Finalize documentation → Engineering Release Review
Manufacturing Release
Pilot
- Production planning (capacity, facilities, staffing)
- Supplier selection evaluation (first article and inspection requirements)
- Define equipment, tooling, test fixtures, test plan
- Manufacturing documentation: traveler, work instruction, test programs
- Employee training → Manufacturing Release Review
Subsequent to our engineering release, the manufacturing release process will take the system into full-rate production. This includes production planning, supplier selection, generating production tooling, test fixtures, and a final product test plan. All manufacturing documentation is produced which includes work instructions, a product traveler, and programs for collecting and analyzing final product test data. A pilot run is conducted to ensure everything is ready to go and during this period all assembly technician training is conducted on the new product. This process culminates in the manufacturing release which is again attended by representatives from manufacturing, engineering, purchasing, quality and management.
Our process is thorough and effective, but it can be completed in a time-efficient manner to meet the needs of our customers’ product development cycle. We can expedite the process if needed for a rapid progression to production.
When you are ready, please Contact Us to get your product development effort started