ISO 9001: 2015 for Prototype Development in Automotive and Aerospace Manufacturers
“Thoughts are but dreams till their effects be tried.”
William Shakespeare
As an aerospace or automotive prototype manufacturer, you play a critical role in linking vision to reality. This is where the rubber meets the road, so to speak. Without prototypes, manufacturers take a large gamble on something that may sound good in principle but not be good in practice.
The process of prototyping, though, is dependent on clear, comprehensive, and consistent communication not only between the customer and manufacturer but also within the prototype manufacturer itself. And more so than in other organizations where there’s room for communication slipups and gray areas, where “good enough” is, well, good enough–in aerospace and automotive prototype manufacturing, the delivered product must be unimpeachable.
Even with the latest and greatest techniques for manufacturing a prototype, those specifications need to not only be precise but precisely communicated. ISO 9001:2015 is the ideal fit for supporting excellence in internal and external communication. Learn more about our certification process to obtain your ISO 9001:2015 certificate.
ENTERING THE FEEDBACK LOOP
Unlike direct manufacturers who have a prescribed list of specifications and produce according to them, then package the product and send it along on its merry way, prototype development does not have such an easy and straightforward exit. Rather, there are numerous steps of internal and then external testing and refinement that occur long before a product is finally released and pronounced: “finished!”
At each of these internal steps–design validation, pre-production, process optimization–a continual feedback loop within your organization informs, refines, and improves a prototype.
The external steps also involve more input from customers through beta testing and focus groups. Then, it’s on to safety tests that provide even more feedback to fine-tune the prototype until it is ready for manufacturing validation. At every single point along the way, there is communication and feedback that is then incorporated into the prototype and carried forward to the next phase.
Arguably, the success of prototype development rests just as much in flawless communication as it does in the manufacturing technology. That is, one can have the latest equipment and the finest materials available but if that feedback loop isn’t impeccable and the communication pristine, the entire process will be bogged down, clumsily lumbering towards a lackluster and even painful ending.
STANDARD OF EXCELLENCE
The brilliance of ISO 900: 2015 is its unparalleled standard of internal communication. Not surprisingly, the very communication process outlined in ISO 9001 mirrors the optimal communication process for prototype development, making this certification type a perfect fit for this industry. And as nice as it is to have an ISO 2015 certification, the benefit is even greater when organizations actually embrace and embody those clear communication channels.
Doing so will support and complement the fancy machinery and the latest techniques. With the gold standard of communication properly in place, the process of continual refinement will deliver, in a smooth and seamless manner, what heretofore only dreams could have imagined.
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