Custom Product Development Process

The process is straightforward and rather simple in the early stages. Contact us with your requirements and we will work with you, and ask questions until we know exactly what you need and want out of your system. We will also discuss pricing and annual production volume requirements so we are all sure there is a good business/market fit for the solution. Most often our customers will want a feasibility prototype quickly to work out controls, integration, or other issues such as gaining familiarity with the system or making a determination on the suitability of the technology to the product they are developing. Depending on requirements, we can often accommodate this in a short time frame.

Following the initial feasibility analysis and prototyping stage, our Engineering Design and Development process is well defined and consistent with the ISO 9001 standard to ensure a resulting high-quality, reliable product. We follow a stage gate process that starts with a well-defined and customer-approved product specification defining all requirements. This is followed by preliminary design efforts culminating with the PDR and a final design effort with CDR. A design intent prototype is built and put through detailed design verification testing by Aspen followed by validation testing by the customer in their application. Once the customer is satisfied with the product, Aspen will assemble the final product documentation and go through the Engineering Release to production. All engineering review meetings are attended by representatives from engineering, purchasing, quality, manufacturing, and management.

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

Before production can actually begin, the manufacturing release process takes place.  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, the product traveler, and the 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.

While our process is thorough and proven through many successful product development and launches, it can be done 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.

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