Documentation
Case Studies
Technology Transfer
With a company due to close operations at one site, critical technology needed to be transferred to another location several thousand miles away. The vision was of eventual development and introduction to manufacturing for a new product.
Some of the potential value was locked in an embryonic development, with a small team unwilling to relocate. The level of documentation was insufficient to convey the core of the design. At this time, the recipient organisation was not ready to take up such projects.
The technology transfer was supported through three aspects:
Liaison was established between the technical leaders of both recipient and the originating teams. Vision was needed to ensure neither party felt unduly threatened by the operation; the single most critical factor for efficient transfer was willingness on all sides. Technical interchange occurred at several levels: Face-to-face, email, conference call, documentation, and transfers of prototypes.
A full set of specifications were documented. This was followed by a set of verification procedures.
The verification procedures were designed to support the recipient engineering team gain an insight into the many facets of the design. The scheme was designed so that sign-off on the verification procedures as having been completed was the same as sign-off on the technology transfer.
Complex Hardware System
A PCI based data acquisition system utilising a series of FPGA's and analogue circuitry was being designed by a team of engineers. Documentation support was supplied through coordination and formulation of a set of specifications, test and verification plans, schematics and PCB layout guidance instruction. This required not only a top-down approach to the project, but also detailed liaison between the specialists involved in facets of design.