Policy/Strategy/Plan

These terms are often confused, and some interpret them in different ways.

While they all have similar meanings and are linked, their functions are quite different.

They form a hierarchy with ‘Policy’ being the top level, followed by ‘Strategy’ and then ‘Plan’.

Let’s take Obsolescence Management as an example:

Obsolescence Management Policy

A Policy might be as simple as a statement:

‘Where possible, will be proactive in our Obsolescence Management to ensure that component supply issues do not affect our ability to manufacture our product(s)’

This will be a high-level statement from top management.

The Policy will lead to an Obsolescence Management Strategy.

The Strategy will include an IF-Then Statement, which will take into consideration different scenarios, which will require different action plans, such as:

  1. IF Required Item subject to NRND, THEN Obsolescence Plan ‘A’
  2. IF Required Item no longer manufactured, THEN Obsolescence Plan ‘B’
  3. IF Required Item suffering Long Term supply disruption THEN Obsolescence Plan ‘C’

The Strategy should be less rigid than the following plan to allow for different scenarios to be examined and decisions made depending of the scenario presented.

Obsolescence Management Plans

Each Plan will contain the process that must be followed to mitigate the identified situations in the Strategy.

The processes will contain details of, for instance:

  1. The testing required to complete the investigation.
  2. The department/person to conduct each part of the investigation.
  3. The equipment to be used to complete the testing.
  4. etc

If a scenario is presented that does not appear in the initial Strategy, the Strategy should be flexible enough to incorporate a new Plan to mitigate the newly identified Scenario.

If you require assistance in developing your own Obsolescence  Strategy/Policy/Plan, we can help. Please contact us at info@cnxtechnical.com for more information.

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