At its start, electronics manufacturing is much like building a house. In the case of building a house, everything starts with the blue prints. Quotes are not given, supplies are not ordered, foundation is not poured and construction doesn’t begin until the blue prints are in order.
At MJS Designs, Jenna Strevell is the Technical Documentation Specialist. Her role is to meticulously audit, organize, compile and archive a high volume of documentation that relates to each project. Every step of the process has a digital paper trail with documents and Jenna, a six year team member of MJS Designs, is at the center of it all. Jenna touches everything from the documents needed to prepare a RFQ (Request for Quote) to the documents needed to order parts or documents needed for fabrication.
MJS Designs has a strict policy to never make changes to a client’s documents, the easiest typo or a random item that is highlighted, will have Jenna in correspondence with the customer to clarify the documentation before the project can move to the next step.
“I need things to be in order . . .that is why I connect with the documentation process. The only way to make sure the final product meets the customers’ expectations, is to make sure every detail of the documentation is correct and accounted for. You can’t take short cuts with documentation when you are committed to delivering the highest level product to the customer,” states Jenna, who is also a CID+ certified CAD Designer, skilled in Cadence Allegro PCB Editor XL (Expert), Mentor Graphics Xpedition PCB (Expedition), Mentor Graphics PADS Layout, Altium Designer, to name just a few of the programs she works with.
With Jenna’s design background she is the liaison between customers, board fabricators, and the design team, to ensure the documentation packages are complete and all technical questions are answered quickly and correctly.
There are several key steps in the design and assembly phase where Jenna is creating, reviewing and finalizing documentation for a project.
Contract Review – Review of Purchase Order & flow down of requirements. The business development team works with Jenna and the documentation team to assure minimum required documents are received as defined by the company procedures and to prepare a quote. For a production project, the minimum requirements may include SOW (Statement of Work), a BOM (Bill of Materials), Visual Aid & necessary CAD-CAM/ X-Y data. Jenna must review each item, assure it is accurate and complete, and if not, acquire the necessary information to move the project forward.
Document Review – Documents could include everything from the SOW, to fabrication drawings to schematics. Often, it is during the document review process that discrepancies are found and the process of updating and completing the documentation begins.
Production Planning – In order to put a project into production, all documents including the Bill of Materials (BOM) are compiled, organized and prepared for the production team. It is during this process that new discrepancies are found and any information that is incomplete or out-of-date can be addressed.
Production Setup –Primary function of prior three steps is to not encounter issues as Production prepares to ramp up. These reduce process time and maintain or improve delivery schedules.
In quick-turn environments, like MJS Designs, there may also be a final production review of the X-Y data files and the BOM, along with quality performing a complete sweep of the BOM.
It is important to have an expert like Jenna Strevell involved in your project. Jenna is that person who is behind the scenes, never guessing about details, checking and double checking to make sure every sketch, schematic, BOM, SOW and every other file is complete. She clarifies the details are in order to assure products are completed to customers specifications with little room for error and increasing the time to market.
Do you have questions about the documents needed for your next project? Live chat with Jenna or one of our other experts at www.mjsdesigns.com