Sample Approval
Sample approval is the customer trying the prototype or the first production sample against previously agreed acceptance criteria and giving written approval to move to series production. The approval also records which revision and which software version the product was approved with; subsequent production is done according to that reference.
The approval process runs in three steps.
- Delivery: the sample is handed over together with the acceptance criteria list and the measurement records belonging to that sample. The board revision, software version and serial number are documented.
- Trial: the customer runs the sample on their own machine, under real load and real usage conditions. Any differences found at this stage are reported item by item.
- Decision: approval, conditional approval or a correction request. In a conditional approval it is written down which items are to be closed before series production.
After approval, every change to be made to the design is handled through the engineering change request process, and re-approval is requested if necessary. Drawing this boundary clearly protects both sides: the manufacturer knows what will be produced, the user knows what they accepted. How long the approval process takes varies from project to project depending on the complexity of the product and the opportunity for field trials.
The context in which this term is used: Our Services