What is Release to Manufacturing or RTM?

Release to Manufacturing is a key benchmark in the manufacturing process where the finished and approved product design is ready to be sent to the manufacturing floor.

Which leads to the obvious question, “when is your design complete?” When is everything nailed down so the product can move to manufacturing without any (or least minimal) risk in the process.

There are many ways for a project to go wrong – and doing all the homework before you go to manufacturing – is the only way to reduce your risk and hopefully avoid loss of time and/or money.

Here’s what should be done BEFORE you Release to Manufacturing?

• Approved design
• Approved beta prototype
• Approved supply chain and bill of materials
• Approved receipt of all parts and sub-assemblies
• Approved design for manufacturing
• Approved pilot production
• Approved manufacturing documentation
• Approved regulatory compliance

As you can see, there is a lot more to it than simply having your design and prototype approved.

The manufacturing floor does not want to take on this project until you have everything finalized.

Is there any wiggle room?

With every project, there is a temptation to move forward as quickly as possible.

And so the question we often here is “can we get by with what we have in place?”

The answer of course is it depends.

In many cases you might “get by” – at least for a while – but if you leave some of those risks unresolved, it could come back to bite you sooner or later.

Of those risks come to light while the product is still on the manufacturing floor, but sometimes unfortunately, they are not discovered until the product gets into the market – and then your corrective costs are likely to skyrocket.

Get your FREE copy of our Release to Manufacturing (RTM) Standards

When products are still in the design phase, we are often asked what type of general information and documentation will the manufacturing partner be expecting.

We prepared this document to answer some of those questions.

Click here to get your copy

Let’s take a closer look at the RTM Standards

Watch our videos as CEO John Erickson and COO Mike Dragonas discuss the process and the challenges with meeting the various RTM standards.

We’ll start with a quick overview …

Bill of Materials (BOM) & Parts

There are different types of Bills of Materials, and they will all work, as long as they have all the information for every part you need to build your product.

It’s a painstaking process that requires attention to detail to be sure that every part is specified and labeled, and every supplier is vetted to ensure an interrupted manufacturing process.

Production Fixtures, Tools & Packaging

The RTM Standards goes beyond the actual building of your product. It also needs address any production fixtures or tooling that may be needed to build your product.

And then it needs to outline in detail every aspect of the packaging that will be used in delivering the product.  How will the product be packaged. Will it have a branded box?  Will the package be able to protect the product during delivery? What else will go into the box?

These and other questions all need to be answered before go to manufacturing.

Receiving, Inspection & Documentation

As parts come in, there needs to be process for receiving and documenting the parts. This process may vary depending on the complexity of the part and delivery history of the supplier.

Once the products arrive, there needs to a process for inspecting the product to ensure it is meeting specifications. Again, this will vary with the part and the supplier.

Calibration & Testing Procedures

Throughout the assembly process, your product will be tested and calibrated to be sure you are meeting established guidelines and measurements.

RTM Standards are used to establish and document that process.

Regulations

Before you build you product, you should know where you plan to sell it.  But it’s important to know different markets have different regulatory requirements.

For example, in the United State and Canada, you will need to meet UL requirements.  In Europe, you will need to meet CE requirements.

If you plan to sell worldwide, you may want to do this in phases.

Recordkeeping

For every project, there is an established level of recordkeeping that can stored, tracked and retrieved through ERP system.

But for projects that are higher volume or heavily regulated, a higher level of reporting may be necessary to ensure the process is meeting the project expectations.