Monthly Archives: November 2011

Product Development – The Best Tips for Manufacturing Product Overseas

November 29 2011  |   leardonsolutions  |  All Posts, Manufacturing Tips, Product Development  |  Comment

Product Development – The Best Tips For Manufacturing Product Overseas

If you have ever been involved with the design or manufacturing of a product, you were most likely part of a global product development team. Even if the engineering and manufacturing were performed locally, there is no doubt that some of the engineering or part of the supply chain originated from another country. Involvement in product development and manufacturing requires knowledge of the international and global aspects. In particular, if you are currently in production overseas or are thinking of manufacturing overseas, it is necessary to understand and avoid some of these pitfalls that occur in international and global manufacturing.

Cultural Differences

An obvious but overlooked issue when manufacturing product overseas is that the product development team consists of people from different cultures. When integrated effectively, this diverse team is more productive, better problem solvers, and more creative. But to garner these advantages from your global team, there are some important aspects of the different cultures that must be understood.

      • Learn about their history and the impact it has on their current business and political situation.
      • Know which conversation topics that should be avoided such as politics, religious views, or the effectiveness of their management team.
      • Learn about their attention to timeliness and know that it will most likely be different than yours. Tardiness to meetings is not necessarily a sign of disrespect.
      • Know how business deals are performed. Not all business is done in a meeting room. Understand the importance of eating, drinking, and socializing on business dealings.
      • Remember that your sense of humor probably will not translate or could be offensive so don’t make jokes until you know your partner extremely well.

Communication

Communication is an activity that is crucial to the success of societies and organizations. Obviously, it is also extremely important to the success of overseas manufacturing endeavors. Language and time zone differences are two of the common communication pitfalls encountered while manufacturing product overseas .

More than likely, there will be language differences when working with an overseas manufacturing partner. Most manufacturers have individuals who speak the common language of commerce, English, but this doesn’t mean that the communication methods will be clear and concise. Be sure to speak with simple, common phrases and avoid all slang terms or phrases. Back up all conversations with emails that document what was discussed and agreed. This allows the partner to review the discussion at their own pace and perform any translations if necessary.

Unfortunately, most people view time zone differences as a disadvantage to productivity. On the contrary, time zone differences can be an advantage to a product development and manufacturing team if used properly. It is best to think of the time zone differences as a team that is working around the clock to make improvements, to manufacture, and to resolve any issues. To make the difference extremely effective, it is best to have a “hand off” phone conference daily to discuss the issues encountered by the group finishing work for the day. This hand off meeting will occur at the end of the day (EOD) in one location and at the beginning of day (BOD) in the other location. These EOD/BOD meetings should allow the team ending their day to hand off all the issues found to the team starting their day. Any work required such as data collection, testing, or design work can be performed and then handed back off as the teams switch their roles. This is an efficient use of the time zone difference which increases productivity.

 

Design for Manufacturability

Design for Manufacturing (DFM) is a branch of engineering where focus is placed on designing the parts and product so they can be fabricated with a process that is reproducible and repeatable. While there are many commonly accepted DFM rules that are used around the world, many manufacturers have unique rules based on their equipment, tools, operators, and fabrication methods.

When designing and engineering a product, the engineering team should apply commonly accepted DFM rules to the initial designs. Prior to initiating the prototyping and qualification phase of the product, the product development team should identify some of the key manufacturers. These manufacturers should then collaborate with the engineering team and help modify the designs as necessary to incorporate the manufacturer’s custom DFM rules. If the manufacturers are chosen after the prototype and qualification phases, schedule delays and unexpected costs will be the result of the late changes made for design for manufacturability.

Documentation

When all individuals involved in the product development and manufacturing process speak different languages, it is important to have proper documentation in place that describes the product that is being manufactured. There are three types of documentation that are critical to a successful overseas manufacturing arrangement.

(1) The first is engineering documentation that specifies exactly how the product looks, feels, and operates (form, fit, and function). Form and fit documentation includes 2-dimension prints, 3-dimensation computer aided design (CAD) files, electrical schematics, printed circuit board Gerber files, and bill of materials (BOM). Operational specifications call out the functional aspects of the product such as basic function, acceptable operating conditions, and required maintenance.

(2) The second form of documentation required is the manufacturing process documentation. This includes how the product is fabricated, assembled, and tested. Documents such as manufacturing process documents, assembly instructions, test instructions, and approval vendor lists are absolutely necessary to properly document how to fabricate, assemble, and manufacture your product.

(3) The third type of documentation is a defect/issue and change list. The team must document and resolve all issues found with prototypes and production units. Be clear to communicate the product issues with your supplier and work on a corrective action plan to resolve the problems. The corrective action will normally entail a design or process change, so have a change management process in place to be sure the proper approvals take place.

Here are a few links if you are interested in learning more about global product development:

Need more information? Please contact us with any questions or contact me directly at joseph.donoghue ( at ) leardon.com

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Prevent A Supplier Relationship Disaster – 4 Tips For Success!

November 22 2011  |   leardonsolutions  |  All Posts, Product Development, Supplier Management  |  Comment

The suppliers, partners, and vendors you bring on to help you with your product development and manufacturing endeavors will determine the success or failure of your product. Don’t underestimate the importance of finding a supplier that not only is the best in the world at what they do but also fits into the culture of your organization. Follow the four simple tips to a successful supplier relationship and save money, time and prevent a supplier disaster.

1. Know Who You’re Hiring

Never get into a supplier or vendor relationship blindly without knowing the details about the team you are trusting to develop, design, or manufacture your product.

The best way to find a supplier or partner is to:

• Ask your trusted network for referrals.

• Do your due diligence on the supplier by speaking directly with them, visiting them if possible, and asking for examples of their work.

• In the case that you find the supplier through the internet, take your time to get to know them, closely evaluate how they work with new customers, and try to speak with some of their references.

• Only work with suppliers who have proven to be the best in the world doing what you need them to do. Many customers incorrectly identify suppliers that do not specialize in solving their needs. Do you need low-volume plastics molding? If so, do not approach a plastic molding supplier who normally handles large production volumes.

• Are you an entrepreneur or micro-enterprise who needs help with product design and development? Don’t hire an engineering services company whose customers include the largest companies in the world.

!! Don’t rush into a new supplier relationship until you are sure they are the right partner !!

2. Know Who’s Doing What

Supplier relationship issues will arise if the roles and responsibilities are not clearly established. Nothing is worse than waiting weeks for a supplier to provide samples only to learn that they were expecting you to provide 2-dimensional drawings for them to use. There are advanced methods of documenting and tracking responsibilities such as the responsibility assignment matrix RACI but these methods are not always required. Simply put, you should work with your vendor to document what they will do for you and what you are required to do for them.

3. Know What You’re Getting

It is extremely important to properly document what you’re procuring from your supplier or vendor so that there are no surprises when product arrives at your front door.

There are two types of documentation that should be established.

• The first is engineering documentation that specifies exactly how the product looks and feels (form and fit). This includes 2-dimension prints, 3-dimensation computer aided design (CAD) files, electrical schematics, printed circuit board Gerber files, and bill of materials (BOM).

• The second type of documentation required specifies how the product operates (function). This product specification calls out the functional aspects of the product such as basic function, acceptable operating conditions, required maintenance.

When developing your product with your supplier, you must also be sure to document and solve all issues found with prototypes and samples provided. Be clear to communicate the product issues with your supplier and work on a corrective action plan to resolve the problems. The supplier should provide new prototypes or samples with the issues resolved prior to moving into final production.

4. Be a Team Player

Finally, remember that a successful supplier relationship requires teamwork and a close relationship. Teams win and lose TOGETHER, not as individuals. Inevitably, issues will arise when working with external suppliers and vendor. When individuals start pointing fingers to blame, the trust system shuts down and everybody goes into protectionist mode. When your supplier or vendor understands that there is co-accountability to the success or failure of the product, they will be much more willing to make the extra effort to solve issues.

Related links :

Need more information? Please contact us with any questions or contact me directly at joseph.donoghue ( at ) leardon.com

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Product Cost And The 4 Tips That You Need To Know

November 16 2011  |   leardonsolutions  |  All Posts, Manufacturing, Product Design, Supplier Management  |  Comment

One of the most frequent questions I get in my initial meetings with potential clients is “How much will that cost to manufacture?” While we understand the importance of this question, it is a very difficult question to answer before an actual design exists. But all is not lost since there are some rules of thumb, hints, and considerations that can be used to come up with a rough budget of the product cost.

1. Consider the product manufacturing volume and location. Two of the more important considerations when determining the total product cost are the total production volume and location. If you are only going to make 1000 products, the product cost will be much higher than somebody producing 1,000,000 products. Also, the product cost is dependent on the county of manufacture due to the effects of labor costs and shipping costs. Know how many you expect to produce and where you want to manufacture before estimating product costs.

2. Perform a sanity check using the product retail price. Product companies are usually very familiar with the retail price that the customer is will to pay for their product. With this being the case, you can use a rule-of-thumb relationship between retail price and product cost to estimate the product costs. For a consumer product, divide the retail price by 4, 5, or 6 to come up with the product cost budget goal. Share this goal with manufacturers and engineers to see if this is in the right ballpark.

3. Estimate mechanical part costs based on size. If you have a relatively simple mechanical product and know the general size of your product, you can work with a manufacturer to estimate the part cost. These estimates require that the manufacturer assumes the material type, material cost, and rough manufacturing labor cost for a product of that size. Again, this will be a budgetary cost but will point you in the right direction.

4. Electrical components take up most of the product cost. If you product requires electronics, you can expect that the electrical cost of your product will be the highest proportion of the product cost. Memory, control electronics, motors, and communication chip prices also fluctuate so it is important to get an expert to estimate the electrical cost. This requires a brief analysis of the product requirements, a rough electrical architecture, and evaluation of the current pricing for many of the more expensive components in the architecture. These estimates take a significant amount of time from an engineering team who understands both engineering design and manufacturing.

Remember that the product costs generated using these exercises will be budgetary estimates and should be treated as such. Allow for a margin of error in your financial calculations in case the actual prices are higher than estimated.

Here is a related link at Entrepreneur.com with some mathematical examples and further explanation regarding product cost.

Need more information? Please contact us with any questions or contact me directly at joseph.donoghue ( at ) leardon.com

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Valuable Product Development Tips From The Leardon CEO

November 8 2011  |   Cliff  |  All Posts, Product Design, Prototyping, San Diego  |  Comment

From time to time our very own Joseph Donoghue finds himself in the spotlight. This time “Joe” as we call him around here, gives an audio interview to graphic and product designer Tara Roskell from Ideasuploaded.com in Northhamptonshire UK. To hear 25 minutes of helpful step by step tips, click on this product development interview link or keep reading for a quick summary of the points covered.

Joseph Donoghue is a veteran of product development. He has a few degrees in the field, but that’s not what makes him great at what he does. Joe has 20 years of experience working for top product development companies like HP and then co-founded Leardon Solutions in 2005 with Murray Learmonth.  What differentiates Leardon Solutions from other engineering and manufacturing service companies is that the Leardon team understands the innovator and the importance of getting the job done on time and budget the first time around so that the entrepreneur can proceed with confidence knowing that he or she has the trustworthy Leardon team on their side.

If you have your creative juices flowing and you think you’re ready to make the leap into product development, here are a few things Joe recommends.

What Are The First Steps For An Inventor:

Take a long hard look at your idea and ask yourself how does your product differentiate from other products? Is it an add on to an existing product? Can you explain to someone what makes your product great?

Other Articles Like This: Success Factors Of An Inventor

Write Down And Document Everything You Think About Your Product Idea:

Make your mistakes and oversights on paper first. This process will help you avoid costly and time consuming changes. Start with your product requirements and specifications. It’s ok to guess at the unknowns,  at least it’s out of your head and on a paper where others can contribute and help.

Proof Of Concept:

If your idea technically complex, put together a proof of concept using materials available to you to validate the concept and work out simple kinks and oversights. At this stage it’s most important to discover if it’s feasible or not. Don’t focus on polish, just function.

Design Prototype:

If you are at this stage, it’s time to dig into the details. A design prototype with determine the look and feel of the product and how the product interacts with the intended user. Design prototypes are great for taking to distributors and potential licensing partners.

Other Articles About Prototypes: Building A Prototype – What You Need To Know

When To Bring In The IP Attorney:

Around the time when you have developed the proof of concept is ideal to partner with the right IP attorney. Let that partner know what you think the IP is, when they begin the research, they may find areas of IP.

Set Up A Qualification Plan:

This is simple, a qualification plan tests tooling and parts in a real world environment to ensure that you won’t ship a product with parts that will fail under certain conditions.

How To Determine Pricing?

Simple formula, your retail price should be approx. 4x your cost per unit. Ex. It costs you $5 to make, sell it for $20.

Common Mistakes

  • Setting the price too low
  • Going from proof of concept straight into tooling – skipping the qualifications can be a costly mistake
  • Working with suppliers you don’t know. They’ll tell you what you want to hear, but you will eventually find hidden costs and other issues
  • Avoid minimum order quantities – look for a supplier that will be ok with 100-500 units initially just to get the products the hands of the users to get feedback.

Need more information? Please contact us with any questions or contact Joe directly at joseph.donoghue ( at ) leardon.com

 

 

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New Product Development ..Great Tips And Lessons From Her Perspective

November 1 2011  |   leardonsolutions  |  All Posts, Customer Profile, Product Design, San Diego  |  Comment

What makes an entrepreneur successful when it comes to new product development? To help answer this question, we interviewed Alexis McCollom White, founder of Equus Athletics, A entrepreneur that is focused on her vision, is open to suggestions, and is willing to adapt as her surroundings change, all strong traits of a successful entrepreneur in the new product development process.

Jumping into entrepreneurship head first, Alexis is a true innovator, in that she saw a problem and worked tirelessly to create a solution.  There is a lot to be learned from someone who has been through the process first hand. Read below to pick up some tips on how to make your new product development successful.

Equus Athletics is a San Diego based company that strives to bring the innovations to main-steam equine athletes, equestrians and their equine teammates. Their newest product is called EquiStix, an equine massage tool which allows horse owners/trainers/care providers to perform therapeutic warm-up and recovery massage procedures on their horse to improve circulation, reduce the risk of injury, and maintain muscle health. The equine community loves the product and Alexis has had her hands full keeping up with demand for the EquiStix.



Leardon: How did you come up with the idea for the EquiStix and how did you differentiate your idea from others out in the market?

Alexis: I came up for the idea of EquiStix when my mare was coming up with chronic soreness in her shoulder. As I was warming up before a gym workout one day, I thought, “I wish I had something like this to help Cali (my horse) with the shoulder issue”. Thus, the idea for EquiStix was born and I went to work on something that met the needs of the equine community. My product is unique with rollers large enough to cover major muscle groups, a stiffness designed for horses, and rollers covered in pliable gel bristles to massage and help loosen dirt and hair.

Leardon: Walk us through the new product development process?

Alexis: I first created a Proof-of-Concept Prototype with all the size and shape features. I sketched the idea and wrote out the characteristics of the product. I used myself as a model to determine a comfortable size for the “average” user. Then, I used duct tape to fashion the rollers and craft molding clay to make the handles. The handles were made using a disposable razor as the handle structure and built up clay around it to form a handle with a comfortable fit for my hand.

Leardon: How did you test the market?

Alexis: Fortunately, I was in the market I wanted to pursue. Once we had turned my ideas, duct tape, and molding clay into a Design Prototype, I was able to take something out to my fellow equestrian friends and let them try it on their horses. Our first Design Prototype was fairly nice looking, although it was certainly not exactly what the final product turned out to be. We cut up actual curry combs from my local tack store and secured them to the rollers to simulate the ultimate texture I desired. For me, it was easy to ask people in my equestrian circles for their feedback, although it can still be intimidating to hear peoples’ opinions of your dreams! Most importantly though, no matter your market, just get in there and ask people. Most are willing to help because they enjoy contributing to new ideas.

Leardon: What did you learn from the customer feedback?

Alexis: At that stage, we didn’t have the EquiStix flexibility nailed down yet. When I took the Design Prototype out to try, it was too flexible when pressed to the body of a horse. None the less, it gave us a very good idea of what we needed to improve, which is the goal of prototyping after all. Most people had positive feedback on the design and use, although we did certainly have a few people that complained about it being “too heavy” or “too long”. We took all the feedback into consideration and settled on a happy medium for the final design. It is almost impossible to please everyone but hearing the people’s opinions, good or bad, is excellent for improving the product.

Leardon: What did you learn about manufacturing a product?

Alexis: First, we were so thankful to have found Leardon Solutions to help streamline the new product development process. Working with them in the end-to-end process of engineering, prototype, and production definitely kept the stress down in a new process that was overwhelming and foreign. During the manufacturing process, I learned that you aren’t really done refining your product. Be flexible and be prepared to make changes as needed because sometimes things must change.

Leardon: What recommendations do you have for others with product ideas?

Alexis: For others considering pursuing their product ideas, don’t be afraid to talk to others; friends, mentors, entrepreneur/inventors groups. People want to help and these discussions can help you decide if moving forward is the right way to proceed. Developing a product and creating a company is a process that requires mental and financial preparation but it is well worth it.

Leardon: What was the most important thing you learned in the new product development process?

Alexis: The most important thing I learned from this process is JUST DO IT! While you want your idea to be something that will be worthwhile and saleable, no one ever created anything without actually acting on an idea. You must keep in mind that not all ideas are good and not all good ideas necessarily do well. But it is an amazing opportunity that opens up worlds of information, education, great contacts, and greater friends. And that’s invaluable.

Visit Equusathletics.com for more information and to get updates.

Need more information on new product development or the manufacturing process? Please contact us with any questions or contact me directly at joseph.donoghue ( at ) leardon.com

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