Assuring Quality in Design Engineering

Design assurance is the disciplined engineering process of assuring that the right job is done right. To many managers, it will simply be considered as “good engineering practice.” Even though it is acknowledged as good practice, finding how few companies actually follow this approach is surprising and disappointing. This article describes the major elements of design assurance, including requirements definition, drawing and specification control, design verification, control of changes, and supporting documentation. Further, the paper discusses the responsibilities of engineering management for planning, implementing and maintaining an effective design assurance program. It is clearly up to engineering management and engineering educators to set the stage for achieving excellence in engineered projects. Surviving the challenges of the marketplace will take excellence and nothing less. Design assurance provides several of the tools needed to meet this challenge successfully.