Deciding when to invest in tooling for plastic injection molding or die casting is one of the trickiest decisions in product development. Move too soon, and you risk expensive revisions; wait too long, and you delay production. In this … [Read more...]
Elon Musk’s 4 Common-Sense NPI Tips
Let's listen to Elon Musk's insights and philosophy into developing and bringing new products to market (from an interview by 'Everyday Astronaut' on YouTube at his launch facility a few years back). A love/hate figure, Musk has succeeded … [Read more...]
Switch Away from a Manufacturer at the First Signs of Trouble
I found myself warning a lot of companies recently about working with unsuitable manufacturers, and I thought I’d write about it. It usually unfolds this way: The buyer designs a new product and finds a manufacturer located in China … [Read more...]
Metal and Plastic Prototype Limitations (and why that’s OK)
Most parts and products have plastic or metal components, and during new product development, we commonly use rapid prototyping to create development prototypes that we test and validate fit, form, and function. It's helpful to understand … [Read more...]
Handover to Manufacturing: What NOT to do & Best Practices
Let's focus on your handover to manufacturing (specifically looking at hard goods with mechanical elements and some electronic/electrical parts). Product handover to your manufacturer is a structured process of actions you follow … [Read more...]
How The Taguchi Method Leads To Consistently-Manufactured Products
The Taguchi method is a tool used in engineering and manufacturing to improve product and process quality and reduce defects at an early stage. It is a statistical analysis approach used early in the product development process that reduces … [Read more...]
Answers to your questions about new product development, supplier bankruptcy, sourcing from China, and controlling product quality & reliability.
Renaud answers four exciting questions from our podcast's listeners. We cover new product development, if and how to start purchasing and importing electronics, supplier bankruptcy, and tips for controlling product quality and … [Read more...]
The 8-Step Customer Journey Manufacturers Need To Consider
When developing a new product you probably shouldn't only focus on the product's core offering, its functions, how it looks, does it work as users need it to, etc. Yes, this is really important, but it's usually insufficient for most … [Read more...]
Benefits of Product Design Optimization (Taguchi Method)
I wrote extensively about ways to proactively improve a product's design, in order to avoid quality, reliability, and safety issues. It involves reliability engineering, fail safe designs, and a variety of other objectives to take into … [Read more...]
The Design for Reliability Process for Launching Reliable Products
What is the design for reliability process that importers can follow to make sure that their products don't fail once in use by customers, even if it's some time after the sale date? Since you need products to last at least the length of … [Read more...]
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