NSG "Right First Time" Quality Approach for New Product Development

Part of our Business Development focus is meeting the customer expectation that we will safely and successfully introduce new products. In many cases the introduction of a new product also involves the introduction of new technologies and innovation stretching existing manufacturing capabilities. The Group has decided to emphasize the risk management related to such product launches from a very early point of the product life cycle.

The existing POGG (Pass Only Good Glass) process, which was introduced many years ago, focused primarily on Quality assurance and performance improvement during the process stage "MAKE". The new process "Right First Time", which has been designed and globally launched in 2024 puts the focus on all the stages before starting production of the new product.

A Key element of this new approach is to understand, assess and mitigate risks even before a contract for a new product is awarded to NSG. While not all risks can be mitigated before award, it is even more important to constantly work on risk mitigation during the phase of product development. The early involvement of the Development Team, Manufacturing Excellence Team and R&D Team is essential to support a successful product launch by our production and quality teams.

In a global exercise a procedure has been developed, which describes in detail the accountabilities and responsibilities of all involved parties and provides tools and business processes to manage product development until product launch. The procedure has been fully embedded into the NSG Business Management System and is fully compliant to the latest IATF Audit requirements.

The new process will highlight at an early stage and in a fully transparent way to all levels and functions of the organization what risks are identified for a new product. This will allow suitable plans to be developed and in close co-operation between our customers and the NSG organization the product launch will be successfully managed. This will finally significantly reduce the risk of a product defect at the customer during launch and the risk of a product recall at a later stage.