1. Exact definition of design and development
In ISO 9000 Section 3.4.4: A set of processes that translate requirements into specified characteristics or specifications for a product, process, or system. It follows that design and development can be product, process, and system design and development.
a) Here the “requirements” is the plural. That is, the requirements that we have to meet after we have designed and developed something. We call the recipient of the results of our work the customer. That is, those requirements that are expected to provide the product to the customer and the product that the customer requires. I call it “usage requirements”.
(b) Here “characteristics” is plural, not singular. “Characteristics” is also defined in the ISO 9000 standard, clause 3.5.1. It is a “distinguishable characteristic”. Note: Characteristics can be inherent or given. Characteristics can be qualitative or quantitative; there are various categories of characteristics: physical, sensory, behavioral, temporal, ergonomic, and functional. These characteristics are the characteristics of the product through design and development work, we study the quality, that is the inherent characteristics of the product; we use these inherent characteristics to meet the requirements of customers. The same steel and aluminum alloy can be changed into various products such as aircraft, or automobile, and ship through design and development. Its quality is first determined by the design and development process.
c) Specification is also defined in this standard, Article 3.7.3. It is the document that states the requirements. The standard has a note that specifications may be related to activities such as procedure documents, process specifications, test specifications, or to products such as product specifications and drawings. From here, we can see that drawings are also specifications. In fact, they are used to set requirements for characteristics. These requirements are the requirements determined by the specification, simply called “specified” requirements. According to the above definition, we can understand. Design and development is the customer’s various requirements for use into a series of activities for the implementation and verification of the specified requirements so that they can be operated. The result of design and development here can be a product, or a process or system. We use the inherent characteristics of the product to meet the customer’s usage requirements. We must determine the requirements for the inherent characteristics of the product, and then, design and develop the process, the characteristics of the product requirements into the inherent characteristics of the process and requirements (to meet the procedural documents, process specification requirements). Then, according to the requirements of the process into the characteristics and requirements of the system (to meet the ISO 9001 standard, their own quality management system requirements).
2. Is there any difference between design and development?
Design and development are the above-mentioned series of activities. In different countries there are different understandings of the terms design and development. Some believe that design comes first, followed by development; others believe that development comes first, followed by design. Scientific research can be divided into three categories according to the process: basic research (to reveal the inner laws of things), applied research (to determine the basic principles for new products and technologies); and development research (to develop new products and technologies using the previous results). Then, new products or new process technologies (processes) are designed for specific customer requirements. Some countries, on the other hand, do just the opposite. It is considered that first new products and technologies should be designed, and then, products and process technologies should be developed to meet the specific needs of customers. When writing standards, it is difficult to unify. Also put it together. It is not necessary for us to figure it out. Of us to grasp, the new design of a product, or called the new development of a product to meet the requirements of Article 7.3, in the already existing products, do modify or call the change into another product, but also to meet the requirements of the standard 7.3.