In This Episode... Renaud and Adrian talk about rapid prototyping and rapid tooling methods to make prototypes a lot faster than production tooling, with a focus on electromechanical products and plastic injection molding. You'll get … [Read more...]
Getting To Grips With Non-Recurring Engineering Costs (NRE) [Podcast]
In this episode of the podcast, we discuss Non-Recurring Engineering costs for manufacturers. As the name suggests, these costs are usually one-off and are what it takes to get your product into production. These costs are perhaps better … [Read more...]
The Design for X Approach: 12 Common Examples
The Design For X (or “Design for Excellence”) methodology lays out a number of design guidelines for reaching the product’s objectives. The idea is to review and improve the product & process design before the new product is … [Read more...]
A Textbook on Design for Manufacturing and the NPI Process (EVT-DVT-PVT)
I am halfway through this book and I thought many readers would enjoy it: Product Realization: Going from One to a Million by Anna C. Thornton. Here is the book's presentation by its publisher: Product Realization: Going from One to a … [Read more...]
Good Project Management With Chinese Suppliers From A Product Designer’s Perspective [Podcast]
Let's hear from an experienced product designer about project management with Chinese suppliers... In this episode, we catch up with Andy Bartlett, a friend of Sofeast, who is an enormously experienced product designer from the UK, to … [Read more...]
New Physical Products: Patents Should Come After Market Success
We talk to a startup company developing a new physical (hardware) product at least once a week, and I'd estimate that about 25% of them try hard to secure a patent. I get it. They are afraid of being copied. They know investors and … [Read more...]
Prototesting: Reap All the Value of Proof of Concept Prototypes
Many of our clients design their own products. And we typically don't get involved in the initial concept/ideation phase. That's clearly not our competence, nor our offer. However, we are often invited to ask questions about their new … [Read more...]
Why The Bill Of Materials (BOM) Is A Key Document For Importers [Podcast]
The Bill Of Materials - more important than you may think! The Bill Of Materials is an incredibly important document which spans the product development process and evolves as you get closer to mass production. It provides all of the … [Read more...]
Is Your New Product Design Ready for Manufacturing in China? [5 Questions]
There is a misconception in many people's minds. They think there are many manufacturers in China & Vietnam capable of, and willing to, do a lot of the development work for a new product they think is promising. That is true if … [Read more...]
Dangers of Amortizing Development Costs in the Production Price
When I offered a model for guiding buyers to choose an ODM vs. OEM vs. CM supplier, I mentioned that OEM suppliers often "subsidize" the cost of developing the new product. Then, the buyer ends up paying the cost of development, but it is … [Read more...]