This one thing truly never gets old and is one of my favorite parts about being a product design consultant, and that is seeing our product designs being used in the most interesting of ways! This product, the X1, is a portable X-ray device and it is being used on the new BBC show airing now about the Galapagos Islands. The X1 is being used, for the first time to x-ray lizards and birds in the wild. I mean how cool is that?!
Developing a hardware product...you need to read this!
If you are in the process of developing a hardware product or planning on developing one, you need to know about DFM, three little letters that can cause a world of hurt. For those of you who don’t know what they stand for, it is design for manufacture. But what it actually means for your specific product and how to do it successfully can take decades to learn and a whole book to explain. There are lots of designers and engineers that talk about designing for manufacturing, but to fully understand how to successfully design your product and then transition to manufacturing requires in-depth knowledge and experience of BOTH design and manufacturing. And ideally you have gone through the design and manufacturing process a lot of times. You see, it is rare that you run into the same problems on every program. Having exposure to many different types of product development programs can help in knowing what problems may arise. And there are literally hundreds of ways your product can hit the skids once it reaches manufacturing. We have seen all of the following occur:
· Drastic changes required to a design by the manufacturer
· Parts that have horrible aesthetic quality and can’t be fixed
· Parts that break
· Parts that cost 3X to 4X more than estimated
· Massive delays and crucial deadlines missed
· Poor performance of parts
· Non functioning parts
· Catastrophic failures
· Teams that don’t get along and point blame for problems
· Breakdowns in communication
· Design changes once final DFM and manufacturing have already begun
· Parts built from incorrect databases or down rev. designs
· Assemblies that cannot be built as designed
· Designs that are too loud or have unpleasant sounds
· Designs that overheat
· Design with unsightly injection mold flow lines, sink marks , gate issues and surface blemishes
· Sourcing problems
· Manufacturing problems that never get fully resolved and end up killing the product
And the list goes on and on. With all this attention to designing for manufacture these days, how come all these problems still exist? Well, here are five things we have found that it pays to watch out for during your design for manufacturing program:
· Don’t underestimate the difficulties of product development. For one thing, hardware design is, hard. It can seem simple enough; after all it’s just hardware. But that is where one of the problems happens, thinking that the risks are less than they actually are / underestimating potential issues and taking shortcuts in engineering and prototyping to reduce costs or to shorten the development timeline; even a lack of understanding of what can actually go wrong in manufacturing can come back to haunt you. Unless you have successfully completed a lot of products, seen them all the way through to the very bitter end, researched and visited factories of all kinds, and evaluated past programs on a consistent basis to find problem areas and asses how to make improvements, you are probably going to run into some issues that will cause you heartburn and gray hair. Get people on your team that have been through the process and have the experience to guide you. Be leery of anyone that discounts risks and has no allowances or contingency plans for manufacturing the more complicated parts of your product.
· Don’t push manufacturing to its limits. Design deals with the clean and perfect world of CAD, and manufacturing deals with real materials, like metals and plastics. It is always harder to execute properly in the manufacturing world. Unless you have the time, budget and stomach to troubleshoot your product design until it is right, don’t push manufacturing to its edges. And it is very easy to push manufacturing past its limits. You may think your design is simple to manufacture, but it may not be. Stick with more conservative, simple design solutions unless you really know what you are getting yourself into. And yes this may mean that you have to simplify your design and remove some of the less critical features in order to do this.
· Be prepared for higher initial unit costs. No one has ever come to us and said they wanted their product to cost as much as possible. We usually start every program off with a cost target that was arrived at based on a marketing analysis. The problem is always that manufacturing costs vary quite a bit for any number of reasons. Startups or companies without bargaining power with their manufacturers will usually pay higher costs because the new product is an unknown entity. We routinely see manufacturing prices drop over time as we continue to order more product. The take away here is to be prepared for higher manufacturing costs initially as you ramp up your production and try not to sacrifice quality to achieve an initial lower cost. And do not assume because you saw a similar product to yours for a particular price, that you too can get that price. There is no exact formula for what a manufactured price should be; only what you have the bargaining power to negotiate based on how much the factory stands to gain from building your product. Moving your product from factory to factory always searching for a lower price has costs associated with it too as well as potential quality problems.
· Choose your manufacturing partner early. We have all heard this and done it. But here is something that you may not have run up against. Manufacturers brought in early but not guaranteed the project or paid for their time may not give you good advice. Do not assume that a manufacturer that sits in on a few meetings or conference calls during your engineering process is really up to speed on your product. Keep in mind that the design process can take seven months or much longer. That is a lot of time for you and your design team to be very familiar with all the aspects of your design. Manufacturers are not super humans who can look at your product and understand everything at once. It is not that manufacturers are intentionally giving wrong advice; they are just unable to spend the proper amount of time to fully understand all the ins and outs of your program. They may want your job, but they also have lots of other potential programs they are seeking to land. There is just no way that you can get the real in-depth advice you need. And if you place your program in the hands of misguided advice you can really go down the wrong path. The solution, decide early on what manufacturers resonate with your company and hire them, give them a purchase order so that they can bill the time they spend on your product design and assure them that they have your business. This will also allow them to be very familiar with your product once it makes it to manufacturing, another huge plus.
· Sending preliminary designs out for manufacturing quote estimates to find the best price is a waste of time. We have all sent preliminary designs out for production cost estimates, before the designs are finalized in order to see if the design is on cost target and to see who offers the best price. This rarely provides any real value for two reasons; #1) the unfinished details are usually where the big costs wind up, and #2) factories will often quote low on preliminary estimates to keep from scaring you off and they know that when you submit the final design they can re-quote and give a higher price based on the rationale of item #1). Manufacturers will need time to get up to speed on your product, and that usually means more than a week or two during the quoting process. And they can often miss important problems, which they will later require changes to address. And those changes can lead to a product that you don’t want, and one that you may ultimately have to live with. Work with a really good manufacturer throughout the entire process and design the best possible product, optimized for their factory. Ultimately that is how you get the best quality and cost. As the factory makes more and more of your product and makes a reasonable profit, they will become more efficient at manufacturing it and that can result in cost savings to you.
Getting a manufactured product to be close to perfect is difficult, and it certainly won’t happen unless you stay on top of your manufacturing. Just dropping your finished CAD files on a factory, demanding a low price, and expecting it to be built quickly is not a wise plan. Getting your product manufactured the way you want requires knowledge, experience and a humble understanding of the design and manufacturing process.
If you are wondering about your specific DFM program, contact us at Driven Innovation and let us help you out.
Is your design successful?
5 steps to create an awesome visual brand language.
There are a lot of factors that go into creating a successful product that people will love. No one thing is ever solely responsible for a product being a hit. But one area that is crucial is a product’s visual and tactile design language. As human beings, we are hard wired to make judgments and have opinions on how things look and feel when we touch them. And your new product is no exception. Here are some points to keep in mind when you get ready to create your next product.
1) What your potential customer sees first matters - Every detail of your product’s exterior design, such as the shape, color, user interface features, and logo help customers identify and remember your products. These are some of the most important factors that make up the visual brand language and how you use them can be the difference between a product that is average and a product that is great. Great products create customer loyalty and built brands. Average products don’t.
2) We live in a highly saturated world - Creating a recognizable brand is really the only way to stand out in today’s crowded product landscape. Your brand is reinforced by your product(s) visual language. This visual brand is a part of the overall brand and consists of all the aspects of a product experience that the user can see and touch. A brand is ultimately built on trust, meaning that the product delivers on the promise that is made, both overtly and implicitly.
3) You will be judged by your weakest link - A well thought out and cohesive visual language ties together different products / product lines and strengthens the user’s perception of quality. By creating a product that has been well designed, both from a user interface and visual stand point, the underlying user perception will be that if the outside is done so well, everything else must be too. We make immediate judgments on products based on how they look and feel. Sometimes this judgment can make or break how the user thinks about your product(s).
4) As in all areas of life, consistency is important - Creating a consistent visual brand language between products develops familiarity and can help users intuitively understand how to operate your products, even for the first time. Everyone likes it when they can easily understand how to use a product. And no one likes a product that confuses and frustrates them. A consistent visual look helps customers easily recognize that different product offerings come from the same company. This builds brand awareness, which can translate into the customer purchasing more products from your company or to the customer attributing more value to your product(s).
5) A product makes a promise, good or bad - The visual product language is the physical embodiment of the products technology. This means that often the technology that powers a product is sealed inside a compartment and not viewable by the user. The user may not even really understand how the technology works. What they see and experience is the physical embodiment of the outside of the product. The quality of the design they can see and touch can be translated to the technology inside, because the user can, and usually does, form an opinion about how the product should function based on the look, feel and quality of the exterior of the product. If the function of the product does not match the user’s expectation based on the exterior experience, the user will feel that disconnect. We have all experienced this. A product looks great and we have high expectations, but it performs poorly and we are upset. The opposite is also true. A product can look dated, or of poor quality, and if we do use it, usually because of a lower price than the competition, we are surprised if it performs well. In this case, not matching your products look and feel to its performance is a major opportunity lost to attract yourself new customers and to build brand loyalty. The proper “brand promise” is that the quality of the look and feel must match the product’s performance.
The Driven team has three decades of product development knowledge. Contact us if you have questions about how to get the best possible visual design language for your next great product.
Want to know how to get that perfect surface finish?
Complicated surface finishes can be difficult to manufacturer consistently and for a reasonable cost, but they can also make a product design spectacular. A complex surface texture or a combination of surface textures can take some time to get right, so be prepared for that. But the reason for investing the effort is that sometimes a beautiful texture can make a design very eye catching and can convey a high level of quality and elegance. Some things to keep in mind when developing that texture and finish:
1) Make sure to find a manufacturer that really understands the look and feel you want.
2) Allow for some rounds of back and forth in order to get the texture right. There is nothing worse than trying to achieve a complex texture or texture combination and missing the mark.
3) If you cannot get exactly the look you desire, dial it back and go for something simpler.
4) Be open to different manufacturing methods in order to get the desired look at a manufactured price that is acceptable. This may result in slight design changes dictated by that manufacturing process.
5) Once you start, see it through to the end. It will be worth it.
And contact us here at Driven if you need help getting your amazing product built!
Are you an innovative thinker?
Everyone has the capacity to improve their ability to think creatively and to come up with innovative solutions to problems they wish to solve. After almost three decades in product development consulting, we have found some keys to being an innovative thinker. Here are five points that can help you become more creative in your thinking:
- Gather knowledge and experiences from a variety of places. In order to be more innovative, you have to go beyond how you currently think. Being innovative means having the ability to come up with ideas that are unique and different from the norm. One way to help that happen is to acquire knowledge from areas outside your normal life experience and professional arena. Having a broad knowledge base and diverse experiences are great ways to open up the mind to creativity. When the mind is open, interested and optimistic, we have found that unique ideas come more easily. Read articles and research topics that are new to you. Keep a journal of images or information you find interesting and periodically go back and review it in order to refresh your memory. Take opportunities to try new experiences and activities. And do these things habitually. Make the exploration of knowledge a regular behavior.
- Practice noticing connections and patterns. Once you increase your knowledge base, try seeing connections and patterns in your life. Become aware of how things work around you and really observe your surroundings. You will be amazed at what you see. Being able to make connections that others have not noticed is a key point in innovative thinking. Recognizing where a piece of information from one area can be used effectively in another is a great asset. For example, understanding people’s behavior in one area of their lives could be a predicator for certain behavior in another area, and could lead to innovative ideas and solutions.
- Be aware of situations where improvements are needed. Observing problem areas is a critical step in being a creative thinker and most often it takes a bit of discipline in order for it to come naturally. Train yourself to ask the question “Is there a better way to do this?”Once you know the problem, you can go about looking for a creative solution. Just like muscles, your brain and thought patterns work faster and easier when exercised, so looking for solutions, even as just a mental exercise, has value. Practice being innovative in your thinking. For example, if you are doing an action or using an object, and you are not satisfied with how it works, ask yourself what would make it better.
- Become confident in your ability to innovate. As in everything, confidence is the key. The more confident we are at anything in life, the more we are in alignment with it and the better we perform. The trick is how to achieve this state when something is new to you. That is where the above three steps will help. As you increase the diversity of your knowledge base, practice noticing connections, and look for areas of improvement, innovative ideas will start to come more quickly and confidence will build. Also, more information in means more ideas with which to work. True creative intelligence comes when you can take facts and information and put them together in ways that solve real problems. Begin thinking of yourself as a creative thinker. The more you can identify with this the more innovative you will become.
- Keep the emotion out of it. The saying goes, “Never fall in love with an idea.” The point being that once you become emotionally vested in an idea you can put too much effort into it, at the risk of ignoring fatal flaws. The converse can also be true. An idea may seem ridiculous, but it may lead to a better solution. One that you would not have found if you emotionally reacted to the initial thought. Approach each idea with an open, but rational mind, assessing both the upsides and downsides. Once you have a range of ideas, you can assess each one on its merits and choose which direction is the best.
Innovative thinking can be fun and yield great results. We believe that if you use these five points, you will see results in the form of new and unique ideas. And contact us at Driven if we can help you with your next innovation project!
