A Systematic Approach to New Product Launch

One of the challenges of being an aerospace contract manufacturer is managing the introduction of new production parts, without disrupting the normal flow of ongoing production. In contract aerospace manufacturing, schedules are almost never static. The reality is, even with customer LTA’s (Long Term Agreements) many deliveries of the identified parts or families of parts, are constantly being in pulled in or pushed to match their customer needs and alignment with their markets. In addition to the rescheduling of existing parts there is also the introduction of new parts into the production schedule. Successfully introducing new parts into your production with disruption requires a systematic approach to new product launch.

Adding new parts is a good thing and always welcomed, but without a proper system in place that can digest new work without impacting current production, can present problems that go well beyond just “making the part”. Intrex has years of experience dealing with this issue.  Over the years we have developed a “new product launch” system. It is a systematic solution that addresses the challenges associated with the problem of “onboarding” new parts. Specific task management is identified and linked to all relevant staff involved in the launch process. Our process allows us to monitor and measure in real time.

Our system involves multiple steps required to successfully launch a part. They are as follows:

• Engineering review for configuration management. All new parts get a thorough engineering review both pre and post order award.
• Quality confirmation of configuration management and specification review. Integral to the part review is input and evaluation from our quality group, confirming that the new part can not only be produced but measurements can be made, recorded and reported to meet all measuring criteria.
• Quality confirmation of inspection tool availability. Part of our quality confirmation is confirming we have the proper resources (tooling, gages, software, etc), to carryout all necessary measurements
• Team review of drawing, specs, issues. This is an overall engineering/quality/production review, reviewing all facets of the manufacture and identifying potential manufacturing/measuring issues.
• Development of program and tooling needed for each operation. Once the drawings and specifications have had a thorough team review, a CNC program is developed to maximize production efficiencies.  Part of the optimization of the program is selecting (and acquiring if necessary) the correct tooling to perform the cutting operations.
• Development of inspection plan. A specific detailed plan is developed that addresses the total inspection of the part through finish.
• Release to the production floor. Now that all the pre-production planning, engineering review, programming, tooling and fixturing acquisition is completed, the part is released to the production floor.
• Evaluate first-run data. The initial data of first run results are now accumulated and evaluated.

 At Intrex we are always in a continuous improvement mode of our systems and our products. Our systematic approach to a new part launch is a testimony of this CI process. It is a proven method for releasing new parts onto our production floor. This can be measured by our metrics PPM’s – OTD’s) and most importantly, our customer satisfaction.

If this is something of interest and would like to have conversation about, we would welcome the opportunity. Please click here for our contact information.