Solutions Design Procedure

Nomenclature

Term	Definition
D&D	Design and Development
EDI	Electronic Data Interchange
QMS	Quality Management System
SOP	Standard Operating Procedure

Purpose

This procedure sets out how Westlink Logistics plans, controls and records the design and development of the bespoke logistics and transport-engineering solutions it provides to clients. It satisfies the requirements of ISO 9001:2015 clause 8.3 and ensures that designed solutions consistently meet client, statutory, regulatory and Westlink requirements before they are submitted to a client or implemented in operations.

Scope

This procedure applies to the design and development of bespoke client solutions — work in which Westlink determines the scope, methodology or deliverables rather than simply executing a fully specified instruction. It applies to every Westlink worker who captures requirements for, designs, reviews, verifies, validates, approves or changes such a solution, across the defence, mining, energy and project-logistics work in which Westlink operates.

Solutions within scope include, but are not limited to:

• project-freight method engineering and heavy-lift planning (route surveys, lift studies, load-securing and restraint designs);

• modularisation and transport-engineering design for oversize or over-mass cargo;

• bespoke warehouse, contract-logistics and supply-chain operating models and layouts designed to a specific client requirement; and

• custom information-system, EDI and reporting configurations developed for a specific client engagement.

Scope boundary. The straightforward forwarding or movement of freight against a fully specified client instruction — the delivery of Westlink’s published, repeatable service capability where there is no solution to be designed — is operational service provision under ISO 9001:2015 clause 8.1 and is not design and development. Such work is controlled through Westlink’s operational procedures, not this procedure. Where it is unclear whether an engagement involves design, the Technical Manager makes and records the determination using the design-applicability test in Section 5.

Roles and Responsibilities

Role	Responsibility
Operations Manager	Owns this procedure and the design and development process. Ensures design activities are appropriately resourced and that design controls are applied and effective. Approves the release of designed solutions for client submission or implementation where not otherwise delegated.
Technical Manager	Design authority. Plans each design and development activity, determines its stages and controls, chairs design reviews, and conducts or assigns verification and validation. Determines whether an engagement involves design (the applicability test) and records the decision.
Business Development / Account & Freight Operations Manager	Captures and confirms client requirements and other design inputs at tender and pre-contract, and ensures inputs are complete, unambiguous and recorded before design proceeds.
Project Manager / Project Coordinator	Manages the design within an engagement, maintains the design records, and raises and tracks design changes during contract execution.
QHSE / Compliance	Confirms that statutory, regulatory, work-health-and-safety, environmental and security requirements are identified as design inputs, and that designed solutions are consistent with the management system.
Chief Executive Officer	Approves solution designs reserved for executive authorisation (for example high-value, high-risk or defence engagements) and ensures the design function is adequately resourced.

Definitions

Term	Definition
Design and development	The set of processes that transform requirements for a solution into specified characteristics or into the specification of a solution (ISO 9001:2015). At Westlink it is the engineering and planning of a bespoke client solution.
Solution	A bespoke logistics, transport-engineering or supply-chain arrangement designed by Westlink for a specific client requirement — the product of the design and development process.
Design input	A requirement that the design must satisfy — including client functional and performance requirements, statutory and regulatory obligations, applicable codes of practice, lessons from previous similar solutions, and the potential consequences of failure.
Design review	A planned, recorded evaluation of a design’s ability to meet requirements, conducted at defined stages, that may authorise the design to proceed, proceed with actions, or not proceed.
Verification	Confirmation, through objective evidence, that design outputs meet the design inputs.
Validation	Confirmation, through objective evidence, that the resulting solution meets the requirements for its specified application or intended use.
Design output	The result of design and development in a form that can be verified against inputs and used for service provision — for example a solution document, method statement or engineering study, a bespoke standard operating procedure, a warehouse layout, or a system configuration.

Design Process and Planning

Westlink establishes, implements and maintains a design and development process appropriate to ensure the subsequent provision of its solutions. The process is applied whenever an engagement involves design. The Technical Manager applies the following applicability test and records the outcome: an engagement involves design where Westlink determines any material part of the scope, method or deliverables of the solution (for example a lift method, a modularisation arrangement, a bespoke warehouse operating model or a custom system configuration); it does not involve design where Westlink delivers a published, repeatable service to a fully specified client instruction.

For each design and development activity the Technical Manager plans the design and, in determining the stages and controls, considers and records as appropriate to the nature, duration and complexity of the work:

• the required process stages and the design reviews, verification and validation activities at each stage;

• the responsibilities and authorities involved, and the resources (internal and external, including any specialist engineering input) needed for the design;

• the interfaces to be controlled between the people involved in the design, and the involvement of the client and end users where required;

• the requirements for subsequent provision of the solution and the level of design control expected by the client and other relevant interested parties; and

• the documented information needed to demonstrate that design and development requirements have been met.

The scale of planning and control is proportionate to the risk and complexity of the solution: a high-risk heavy-lift or defence engagement is planned with formal staged reviews, while a lower-complexity bespoke arrangement may be controlled through a single combined review. The basis for the level of control is recorded in the design plan.

Design Inputs

For each solution Westlink determines the requirements essential for the specific type of solution to be designed and developed. In determining the design inputs, Westlink considers:

• functional and performance requirements (what the solution must do and the standards it must achieve);

• information derived from previous similar design activities, including lessons learned;

• statutory and regulatory requirements applicable to the solution (for example chain-of-responsibility, dangerous-goods, work-health-and-safety, environmental, customs, biosecurity, trade-control and security obligations);

• standards and codes of practice that Westlink has committed to implement; and

• the potential consequences of failure, having regard to the nature of the solution (for example the safety, cargo-loss or mission-impact consequences of a heavy-lift or defence solution).

Design inputs must be adequate for design purposes, and complete and unambiguous before design proceeds. Conflicting design inputs (for example a client requirement that cannot be met within a regulatory limit) are resolved and the resolution recorded before the design is progressed. Westlink retains documented information on the design and development inputs for each solution.

Design Controls — Review, Verification and Validation

Westlink applies controls to the design and development process to ensure that:

• the results to be achieved are defined;

• design reviews are conducted at the planned stages to evaluate the ability of the design results to meet requirements;

• verification is conducted to ensure the design outputs meet the design input requirements;

• validation is conducted to ensure the resulting solution is capable of meeting the requirements for its specified application or intended use — by analysis, by reference to a proven comparable solution, by trial, or by staged implementation, as appropriate; and

• any necessary actions are taken on problems determined during the reviews, verification and validation.

A designed solution is not submitted to a client or released for implementation until the planned reviews, verification and validation are complete and any actions arising are closed or controlled. Westlink retains documented information of these review, verification and validation activities.

Design Outputs

Westlink ensures that design and development outputs:

• meet the design input requirements;

• are adequate for the subsequent processes for the provision of the solution;

• include or reference monitoring and measuring requirements, as appropriate, and acceptance criteria; and

• specify the characteristics of the solution that are essential for its intended purpose and its safe and proper provision.

Design outputs are expressed in a form that can be verified against the design inputs — for example a solution or method-statement document, an engineering study, a bespoke standard operating procedure, a warehouse layout, or a documented system configuration. Westlink retains documented information on the design and development outputs.

Design and Development Changes

Westlink identifies, reviews and controls changes made during, or subsequent to, the design and development of a solution, to the extent necessary to ensure that there is no adverse impact on conformity to requirements. A change to a designed solution — whether arising from a revised client requirement, a constraint discovered in execution, or a lesson from operations — is assessed for its effect on the solution, reviewed and authorised at the level appropriate to its significance before it is implemented.

Westlink retains documented information on design and development changes, including the changes themselves, the results of the reviews, the authorisation of the changes, and the actions taken to prevent adverse impacts.

Records and Documented Information

Documented information made under this procedure is retained as evidence that design and development requirements have been met and is managed in accordance with GOV-SCH-001 (Document Retention Schedule). The records expected for a designed solution are listed in the Records section of this procedure.

Applicable Standards and Legislation

This procedure satisfies the design and development requirements of the following standard. Statutory and regulatory requirements applicable to a particular solution are identified as design inputs for that solution under Section 6.

• ISO 9001:2015 Quality Management Systems — Requirements — cl. 8.3 Design and development of products and services (8.3.1 general; 8.3.2 planning; 8.3.3 inputs; 8.3.4 controls — review, verification and validation; 8.3.5 outputs; 8.3.6 changes)