QualityInspection.org

Quality Assurance, Product Development, and Purchasing Strategies in China

Using Prototype Injection Molds for the First Production: Realistic?

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Some products include many custom-designed plastic parts. And the switch to mass production usually requires a high investment in high-pressure injection molds. I had a look at Kickstarter today and I saw a few examples of such products. It's likely that the companies behind these three products have to put a lot of money down on various types of tooling. And it always sparks legitimate questions such as 'can't we just use prototype injection molds for the first production run?'. … [Read more...]

How & When To Transition from a Product Development Team To a Manufacturer

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A good manufacturer is good at... running mass productions without unpleasant surprises. That includes the careful validation of the manufacturing & testing processes for new products, good process control, good management of suppliers, and so on. But it doesn't necessarily designing theĀ product itself. I actually recommend that companies avoid relying on a manufacturer excessively. In our guide to new product manufacturing in China, it is "deadly mistake No. 3". At the same … [Read more...]

New Product Launch Tips For Entrepreneurs (Q&A with Liz Long of ‘Learn to Make a Product’)

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Liz Long, founder of Learn to Make a Product a platform that supports customers to launch products, shares some of her new product launch tips and thoughts about what it takes for entrepreneurs to go through the development process and get their new products to market. Liz herself is a successful entrepreneur who bought a range of reusable bags to the market in the USA which sold for many years. She's also helped hundreds of people realize their products over the years, so let's draw on her … [Read more...]

Fail Safe Design Principles & Examples | Product Risk Reduction

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Some products may, if they fail in a certain way, endanger people's safety or lead to enormous economic losses. That puts much more responsibility on the designers' shoulders and is why using fail safe design principles is so critical. Let's take a closer look at these principles and some fail safe examples you can see in today's products... … [Read more...]

How To Successfully Implement a dFMEA?

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The Sofeast Group's head of New Product Development, Andrew Amirnovin, explains what a dFMEA (Design Failure Mode and Effects Analysis) is, when it's used and why, and the 8 secrets you need to bear in mind to successfully implement yours. This is a tool we use for de-risking product designs at an early stage, reducing the chances of defective products being manufactured and making their way into the hands of consumers.   Listen to the post here: šŸŽ§Ā 8 Secrets for Successfully … [Read more...]

What’s The Investment Required To Bring My New Product To Market?

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A lot of entrepreneurs and SMEs struggle to calculate their investment for launching a new product. This can lead to unexpected costs mounting up and, eventually, needing to sell at a loss or even bankruptcy in extreme cases. So you need to know which costs to calculate, what elements are built into the costs, and how to launch a new product in a less financially risky way. Let's get into those topics here. … [Read more...]

Why DVT & PVT Mistakes Could Cause A Product Recall!

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Electronics giant Philips has been in the news due to a billion-dollar recall of medical devices (ventilators and sleep apnea machines) that have, unfortunately, resulted in deaths and injuries. What could have caused such serious problems to make it into production and force such a huge recall, and what can we learn from this example? According to the Sofeast group's head of New Product Development, Andrew Amirnovin, issues like this often originate during the DVT stage of the NPI process … [Read more...]

What is the product return rate and how to reduce it? [Podcast]

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In this episodeā€¦ The Sofeast Group's head of New Product Development, Andrew Amirnovin explores what the product return rate is and provides advice you can take to reduce yours before you even start mass producing your product. If you do start to receive product returns, he also gives you a 6-step process you can follow to categorize the issues, focus on the most important, fix them, and monitor to see if the fix is working. Product returns are bad news as they may show that something is … [Read more...]

Final Prototype of your New Hardware Product: When Will You Get There?

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In nearly all cases, people who are developing a new hardware product tend to overestimate the progress they have already accomplished, relative to the "finish line" (bringing a batch of finished products to market). They often think the hardest is to get to a prototype that works like and looks like, the final desired product. That's often wrong, as getting tooling and pre-production pilot runs signed off may take more time and effort. Similarly, they often think they will get to that … [Read more...]