VisionNPD

• New Product Development critical path & sign off control
• Technical Specification Management of finished goods & raw materials together with supplier auditing & certificate management

VisionNPD helps to control the New Product Development process using your own company definable Critical Path(s) within the Stage Gate system. In addition, VisionNPD provides a supplier portal for true collaborative specification completion and authorisation. VisionNPD can be used in conjunction with VisionPDM (Product Definition Management), which amongst its many functions provides a comprehensive costing, nutrition and allergen rollup as well as a highly detailed yield analysis taking into account production gains and losses. VisionPDM ensures the production flow is understood before the New Product concept is presented to the customer and the NPD process truly commences.

VisionNPD’s functionality includes automated internal and/or external e-mail during the NPD Stage Gate and Specification update and approval process. Features include unique specification numbering, version control for traceability and soft coded e-mail messages.

The system holds user and group accounts for email, security management and supplier audit management. Specification requirements are held in multiple pages for both Raw Materials and Finished Goods. These standard pages contain all the detailed information required by food legislation and Retailers. In addition VisionNPD allows you to create your own variable page definitions, so that pages can be added if required.  The system uses internal customisable workflow to control both the flow of the Stage Gate and Specification Approval cycle. Flexible enquiries facilitate instant analysis of the specification data and highlight which Products the resulting Specification are used within.VisionNPD Materials allows specification requests to be raised and e-mailed to the relevant personnel for further processing and links to the relevant pages in the secure supplier portal to promote full collaboration. The Portal holds a full representation of the specification pages including drop down selections with full input validation which mirror the internal user defined rules & selections within VisionNPD.

Suppliers can edit their material specifications from their PC Web Browser and add new information that is not already contained within the drop down selection available. They are able to save and open the specification from their own system until all the required details are filled. Once complete the updated spec is ready for further processing in VisionNPD.

All relevant personnel are notified by email that specification data has been received from the supplier and is ready for verification. The document content is validated allowing the amendment or rejection of any invalid data. New drop down values created by the supplier can be accepted which automatically incorporates them into VisionNPD. In addition VisionNPD can receive and store pictures in JPEG format, PDF’s or other document types as required. Once imported and accepted your authorisation process is triggered which includes supplier sign off and up to nine levels of internal specification approval. Completion results in the creation of the live Item ready for purchase. An audit for additional supplier management and approval is also provided. 

VisionNPD Finished Goods allows a detailed internal specification to be completed with links back to raw material specifications for ingredient details and theoretical ingredient declaration roll-up.  Up to 9 levels of customisable departmental electronic approval forms can be completed and retained for full traceability along with the Stage Gate process providing full visibility of NPD progress. Various Finished Goods Specification Export Formats are provided as standard for links to other systems.

At each stage of the raw materials or finished goods specification process VisionNPD records full transaction history information for traceability and reporting purposes. Specification version numbering is enforced at each change control point to facilitate full historical analysis.