QualityInspection.org

Quality Assurance, Product Development, and Purchasing Strategies in China

The New Apparel Development & Production Process [Podcast]

In this episode… Renaud is joined by another special guest, Belinda Jacobs founder of Techpacks.co, a company that has been helping soft goods designers and brands improve production & decrease waste, through tech packs since 2016. If you're an apparel designer and have a new garment to bring to market, you're going to love this episode! Belinda and Renaud join forces to talk you through the new product development process for apparel, what tech packs are and why they play a central … [Read more...]

Going from 1 Prototype to Mass Production directly is Dangerous

"Can we go directly from 1 prototype to mass production? After all, if they can make 1 good piece, surely they can make 10,000 good pieces?" Well, not really. When it comes to 3D printed parts or a product that comes entirely out of a mold, that might work. But, when different fabrication processes are involved to create custom parts (e.g. extruding the aluminum enclosure in just the right shape) and make them look nice (e.g. powder-coating it in just the right shade of grey), it gets … [Read more...]

Is Your Prototype Ready for Production? 2 Opposite Examples

Many people work hard to get to a working prototype that looks good, then they think it's a production ready prototype and can just be passed to a manufacturer. However, as I wrote before, there are many challenges when going from prototype to mass production. In some cases, there is still an enormous amount of work left to do. Since we sign strict NDAs at my company Sofeast, we can't use our clients' products as examples. But there are plenty of books that describe good examples. Let's … [Read more...]

Why Skipping NPI Phases Is A Big Mistake [Podcast]

  In this episode… The New Product Introduction process is absolutely central to what we do and provides a solid framework for bringing a product to market 'the right way' from concept to mass production. However, SMEs and entrepreneurs sometimes don't realise the importance of the NPI phases and their Chinese manufacturers would prefer to rush into mass production (so they can ship and get paid) rather than following an NPI process or by skipping some of its key phases. This is a … [Read more...]

Technology Readiness Levels: A Better Product Development Framework?

Does the Technology Readiness Levels framework (TRL) developed by NASA make sense for your product development situation? Let's compare it to other development frameworks, including medical devices and consumer electronics, to see how the TRLs are related and helpful as milestones to focus on during the development process. … [Read more...]

Why Reliability Testing Is So Important [Podcast]

In this episode… Products failing in the field is a huge problem for manufacturers, especially if they could lead to accidents or injury. With this in mind, Renaud is joined by Andrew Amirnovin, Sofeast's head of New Product Development and product reliability expert with decades of experience, to go through why product reliability testing is so important when designing, developing, and manufacturing a product. They explore what product reliability is compared with quality, what a reliability … [Read more...]

How the right to repair movement & laws may affect manufacturers in future [Podcast]

In this episode... Sofeast's CEO Renaud Anjoran talks about the 'Right To Repair' movement that is gathering pace today. Consumers are calling for it and governments are starting to bring in legislation in order to steer the electronics industry in a more sustainable direction and reduce the huge amount of e-waste being created each year. But if you're manufacturing electronic products, how might it affect you? Having to design for repairability certainly adds new challenges, but … [Read more...]

Manufacture in China, Get Your Product Copied? Not That Simple.

There are many examples out there of companies that got in big trouble because of their suppliers in China. In many cases, a supplier got very tempted to start selling the same product on their customer’s market.  As a result, people who are designing and developing a new product are often reluctant to plan for manufacturing in China, even when the difference in cost will obviously be massive. … [Read more...]