Glossary: AI and regulatory engineering in engineering teams
WHAT THIS PAGE IS FOR
Short, factual definitions of the terms you meet in engineering documentation and regulatory compliance — CE marking, ATEX, IMDS, PPAP, bill of materials, RFQ scoping, notified body — and in the engineer-controlled AI methods published on this site.
- Engineering team
- An engineering department or firm that designs products, machines or systems and produces the associated technical and regulatory documentation.
- CE marking
- A marking certifying that a product complies with the essential requirements of the applicable EU directives or regulations. It is a precondition for placing the product on the market in the European Economic Area and rests on a compliance package.
- ATEX
- EU regulation (from the French 'ATmosphères EXplosibles') governing equipment intended for use in explosive atmospheres. Each relevant component carries a certificate of conformity issued by its manufacturer.
- IMDS — International Material Data System
- An automotive-industry database recording the material composition of components. It supports substance declarations and a product's environmental compliance.
- PPAP — Production Part Approval Process
- A set of deliverables proving that a supplier can produce a part repeatably and in conformity with the customer's requirements.
- Machinery Regulation (EU) 2023/1230
- The EU machinery regulation that replaces Directive 2006/42/EC from 20 January 2027. Directly applicable across the 27 member states, it brings cybersecurity, software and self-evolving (AI) behaviour into the safety requirements. See the breakdown and the official text (EUR-Lex).
- Compliance package
- A structured set of documents — declaration of conformity, certificates, attestations, manuals, data sheets — proving that a product meets the applicable regulatory requirements. See the method to compile it with AI.
- Traceable regulatory summary
- A standardized summary produced from a source report in which every value stays verified and linked to its source, missing information being flagged rather than invented. See the assisted-writing method.
- Bill of materials (BOM)
- A structured list of a product's components and materials. It is the reference base for gathering certificates and assembling a compliance package.
- RFQ scoping
- A pre-sales phase that extracts the requirements from a specification, identifies risks and prepares the quote for a technical response. See the assisted-scoping method.
- Supplier qualification
- The process by which a buyer verifies that a supplier — often an SME — meets its certification, capability and compliance requirements before awarding production. See the assisted-qualification method.
- Notified body
- A third-party organization designated by a member state to assess the conformity of certain high-risk products before they are placed on the EU market.
- Source-to-document traceability
- The principle that every element of a generated document keeps a verifiable link back to the source it came from — the precondition for auditability before an inspection or a notified body.