­A good landing it's said is one you walk away from, but as any pilot will tell you a good landing is the result of good pre-flight che­cks & planning, a good take-off, a good fli­ght & in particular a good set-up on final­ approach.

These sentiments are as relevant to the R&D engineer as they are to aviation professionals. Good project planning & data gathering, good design, good working methods & in particular a good test environment for verification & validation will ensure the best results.

Setting the standard

The standards we work to are documented & controlled. Theses include:

Processes & procedures: BS EN ISO 9001:2000
Software/firmware design: TickIT
Electronic design: IEEE Good Practices
Coding & documentation: In-house or Client Style
Government directives: ­Any relevant e.g. EMC, Medical, Environmental, Security

Maintaining the standard

In order to achieve & maintain a high level of workmanship, quality must be built into all stages of the R&D process. Whilst quality management may be the key to maintaining standards in essence it is the engineers & their ability to adhere to the standards throughout all stages of their work which makes the biggest difference. In-house training is given to all design engineers in quality systems, standards & inspection & further external quality & auditing training is undertaken by key engineers. Quality Management is the responsibility of the M.D.

Weekly project review, bi-weekly progress reviews & project based design reviews ensure that issues relating to any aspect of our work are addressed.

Closing the loop

The development cycle ends with a project close down, when analysis of the project including the financial, time management, project management, resourcing & customer liaison aspects are all reviewed. Information gained from this exercise is used internally for process improvement & can be shared with our clients.

The next cycle

Long term customer relations are the key to our business & by striving to provide a good quality of service to our customers we aim to ensure that we are their supplier of 1st choice.