7.1 Planning of Product Realization

The planning of product realization process defines the following controls, as appropriate to the product:

This output of this process is often called a product quality plan.

Who generates the product quality plan?

The plan should be generated collectively by the Design, Engineering and Quality Functions. The resulting plan may be a one-off, project-specific plan or more general documentation.

How are product quality plans defined?

The plans may be defined in associated production/service documents such as process flowcharts, control plans, operator/installation instructions or process validation reports.

Planning also leads into the following areas of product realization (doing the job):

Should I document the procedure?

It is not a mandatory requirement to document your planning of product realization process. However, you should always look to adequately define and control any operational processes that directly impact upon product quality. Therefore, the implementation of a planning of product realization procedure will be appropriate to many businesses.

How's best to document the procedure?

Develop and implement a procedure that defines:

  • How product quality characteristics are determined
  • How specific processes, documents and resources are determined
  • How the criteria for product acceptance is ascertained
  • What records are required to prove the products efficacy

The approach that service organizations take to planning of product realization activities might be different to the approach taken by manufacturing organizations.

Looking for help documenting the procedure?

We provide a template for the operational procedure '7.1 Product Realization and Planning' to help you document this process in many of our ISO Templates

Measuring planning of product realization effectiveness

The effectiveness of the planning of product realization process might be determined by reviewing the subsequent process outputs to ensure they correspond with the initial product requirement inputs.