Concept
The concept phase starts following a customer inquiry. The Sales Department, the Strategic Technology Group and the Engineering Department work closely together to determine whether the Company should submit a project offer on the basis of a project proposal. In some cases, RTX and the customer enter into an agreement for a pre-study, in which case a project manager is appointed and necessary specialists are identified to join the project.

Contract signing
The Sales and the Engineering Departments work together to prepare and draw up a development contract. Some of the contract appendices (technical documents regarding performance, schedules, milestones, project implementation, and similar factors) are drafted by the Engineering Department. The contract amount is determined to reflect the estimated man-hours, staffing, direct costs and know-how content. The project manager often participates in the negotiations preceding the contract signing. Generally, contracts are based on a standard contract and adjusted to meet the customer's requirements and the project characteristics. Most contracts are based on payments falling due when certain milestones have been reached as well as a royalty payment per unit of the finished product or versions of it produced. Royalty payments match the product life cycle and typically run for a duration of two or three years but may also apply for shorter or longer periods. Depending on the customer's requirements and specific conditions, a contract can be based exclusively on milestone or on royalty payments or, most often, on a combination of the two. Once the contract has been signed by both parties, the Engineering Department is put in charge of implementing the project on the terms and conditions stipulated in the contract. Consequently, the signed contract is always reviewed with the group of employees appointed to handle the project.
 

Specification
Concise and unambiguous specifications are prerequisites for the successful implementation of a development project. Some specifications are prepared by RTX for subsequent approval by the customer. Other specifications are provided by the customer and RTX then has a certain period of time to specify any necessary changes. The specifications are used during the development and testing processes and when the project is handed over. Each project group adopts the customer's specification level and methodology in order to enhance technical co-operation. Specifications are always reviewed and monitored. Changes to the specifications during the project require the approval of both parties.

Project development
In order to avoid bottlenecks in the development process, each designer should preferably be trained to complete all phases of the development project within his field of expertise. This ensures parallel activities and dissemination of knowledge within the specialist groups. In addition, a two-hour rule is used to encourage everyone to share their knowledge and to ensure that the development process is not halted unless absolutely necessary. This rule stipulates that if an employee is unable to solve a given problem within two hours, he /she should seek assistance from his or her colleagues, who are then required to address the matter as a top-priority problem. State-of-the-art tools and measuring instruments are used in the development process to achieve optimum solutions based on a few measures to integrate radio frequency, baseband and software.

Testing
During the actual development process, the project staff seeks to carry out in-depth testing of the individual design components. The Quality Assurance Department subjects the design to a variety of tests for functionality, environmental impact, range and stress before the design is handed over to the customer. In many cases, customers take part in testing the end-product to allow the parties to verify jointly that the product meets the specifications. RTX always provides a production test specification of the tests to be carried out during production.

Type approval
When pilot production units are available along with the industrial design, the team prepares for the type approval that needs to be obtained for the end-product. RTX carries out all measurements in advance to ensure that the end-product meets the current requirements when submitted for type approval. To date, RTX has assisted in a large number of type approvals all over the world and has built up substantial experience in how to handle the paper flow in order to obtain the necessary type approval certificates.