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Essential Resources For Product Design On A Budget

January 15 2013  |   Cliff  |  All Posts, Business Tips, Product Design  |  Comment

Joe Donoghue, San Diego Prototyping, Patents & Prototypes, Live Web Show, Product Development, Engineering Services, Manufacturing, Entrepreneurial Product Development

Essential Open Source (Free) Software For Product Design On A Budget

Running a small business or startup is always difficult but especially challenging in today’s economy where consumers and investors are far more cautious with their money. A successful startup is a master at running lean. If you need to be that team, fear not, others have blazed the path before you and figured out ways to get high quality results without spending the kind of dollars that the 800 lb gorilla in your industry does.

At Leardon, small businesses and startups come to us at all different levels of preparedness, from the back of the napkin drawing to a fully functioning prototype that has been through the product development lifecycle and is ready for manufacturing.

If you are having trouble communicating the product vision to your startup team and the back of the napkin pencil sketch isn’t doing it, try something a little more advanced.

Google Sketchup

Google Sketchup offers the artistically challenged several ways to take basic to advanced designs into a 3D world with a very easy to learn and use interface. You don’t have to be an AutoCAD master to use Google Sketchup. There are a LOT of tutorials and a huge library of shapes to choose from that will help get you started.

If you download the free version and find it frustrating and taking too much of your time, perhaps a better choice is an affordable industrial designer or specialized product designer.

Gimp

If your small business or startup team is not in the position of purchasing expensive software like Adobe Photoshop but you need a solution for image manipulation software, you can download the open-source leader in this category for either Mac or PC. Gimp has been around a longtime and it’s impressive when it comes to it’s abilities. If you have spent any amount of time with photo manipulation software such as Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator, you will find Gimp a great no-cost work around until you land that first big purchase order, raise venture capital or an angel round.

Inkscape

If you are looking for something that is vector based and could be similar to Adobe Illustrator, but open-source and free, Inkscape might be your answer. It is available for both Mac and PC and is great for product logos.

Have questions related to product development or design in particular, contact us here.

 

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Best Tips For Small Business New Product Development

January 10 2013  |   Cliff  |  All Posts, Business Tips  |  Comment

Joe Donoghue, San Diego Prototyping, Patents & Prototypes, Live Web Show, Product Development, Engineering Services, Manufacturing, Entrepreneurial Product DevelopmentIf it’s time for your business / startup to take on the challenge of new product development, take a moment to review these few tips that the Leardon team has compiled. These tips lean mainly towards new product development for small to medium sized businesses where several unique pitfalls are more likely be encountered.

#1 Dedicate a point of contact

With any product development, there are a lot areas of potential failures. Product development requires strong communication. Choosing a team member on your side to dedicate as the point of contact for all suppliers and vendors will greatly cut down on confusion especially when it comes to communicating with overseas suppliers and vendors.

#2 Constant communication of expectations

It’s important that expectations regarding product specifications and delivery dates be clearly communicated and documented with revision changes notes to avoid confusion.

#3 Be excited but do not drink the Kool-aid

Unlike being a sole proprietor striving to get a product to market, you have a team to support features and ideas. This is good and bad – Good in that you get multiple perspectives, bad that your team is too close to the project and too invested which can lead to skewed perspective of the market value. Be sure to get the feedback of people outside of your organization to see their response since they are not emotionally connected to all of the hard work.

#4 Focus

A creative and passionate group of people working together to bring a product to market may get caught up in the innovation and details of that product which leads to problems such as feature creep. Document a clear plan that reflects some sort of focus with an end goal to avoid losing sight of the key problem the product has been built to resolve.

#5 Be Resourceful

Enterprise level development software licenses ( such as SolidWorks ) can be a huge blow to any budget, check around online for open source variants or outsource the parts of the product development that are cost prohibitive internally.

Need more information on helping your small business or startup develop a product? We can help, contact us today!

 

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Fix A Supply Chain Disaster

January 8 2013  |   Cliff  |  All Posts, Business Tips, Supplier Management  |  Comment

Joe Donoghue, San Diego Prototyping, Patents & Prototypes, Live Web Show, Product Development, Engineering Services, Manufacturing, Entrepreneurial Product DevelopmentFix A Supply Chain Disaster

When it comes to product development, there are a lot of areas where things can go wrong quickly. Most of these problems pale in comparison to supply chain issues that can impact revenue streams and cash flow.

Properly managing the supply chain is key to delivering a product that has the quality, cost, and innovation that a proprietor set out to accomplish from the beginning. If the supply chain management is off kilter by any degree, one or more of these objectives now becomes prone to failure, possibly affecting all other areas of the supply chain and remaining product development lifecycle.

When a supply chain becomes corrupt, it is time for an intervention to correct issues quickly. At Leardon Solutions, when we are called in to fix a supply chain problem, the most common areas of failure are the following:

1) Communication


The Problem: Communication between teams and individuals is absolutely critical to a supply chain. Often, most supply chain issues stem from a communication breakdown between parties. Identifying a communication issue is first and foremost because with poor communication all other problems cannot be rectified.

Our Advice: If project/program management is not your core competency, attempting to fix supply chain issues could cause more harm than good by introducing even more confusion. Find a competent individual or team that has experience with supply chain management to help work the kinks out. This is especially true with overseas management. Someone familiar with the culture, business ethics and customs of your suppliers area will have a tremendous advantage.

2) Quality


The Problem: Shipments of product are showing up at your front door on time and at the right cost, but quality of the product is sub-par and customers are sending the item back after a short time. You can’t figure out if it’s your design, materials, factory or a combination of all three causing the issues

Our Advice: Collect data on what parts are failing and when, revisit the design with your engineering team to find the root cause of the failure and find a resolution, then look to your supply chain vendors to implement the fix. It may be necessary send a qualified engineer / manager to the vendors location to examine factory issues and propose resolutions. Remember that most manufacturers and factories do not have engineering as their core competency (though they may try to sell it that way).  Talk to your local team about performing a factory or vendor audit since they know your product best.

3) Cost


The Problem: You have selected suppliers and vendors, you are ready for product, all tooling has been built and paid for but your cost per unit is still far above what you expected and what the market will bare. You have no transparency with your vendors so you are not exactly sure what you are paying for other than the unit price itself.

Our Advice: If we had a penny for every time we have seen this problem, well……….

You need to pierce the black curtain and see what’s really going on behind the scenes with your vendors. Request a B.O.M. (bill of materials) to get an idea of what they are paying for parts and labor. It’s ok for the vendor / supplier to reasonably markup items because they need to make money as well, but to not provide a B.O.M. is unacceptable and a sure sign that you do not have a relationship that is scalable with your business and product needs.

4) Time


The Problem: Every time you place an order for more product with your vendors / suppliers, it’s a process of deciphering their excuses to uncover what the delivery date of that product order will actually be.

Our Advice: Help eliminate some of the guess work by keeping an eye on the supply chain and looking for trouble spots where slow downs may occur. These could be problems such as factory labor shortages, low global supply of core components, poor communications between the factory and component suppliers, shipping delays, regional holidays. The right experienced person on your team can address any of these issues.

For more information about how to fix a supply chain disaster, please contact us with questions.

 

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Product Development Problems

January 3 2013  |   Cliff  |  All Posts, Business Tips, Product Development  |  Comment

Joe Donoghue, San Diego Prototyping, Patents & Prototypes, Live Web Show, Product Development, Engineering Services, Manufacturing, Entrepreneurial Product DevelopmentProduct Development Problems Can Balloon Quickly

Regardless of the experience of the team, product development problems will arise during your product development process. The ability to recover from these problems will largely dictate the overall success of the product.

At Leardon Solutions, new clients sometimes come to us with problems that need immediate solutions to save the product from certain death. Problems can arise in any number of areas from prototyping to manufacturing. If the project has been mismanaged to any degree, only a highly experienced team can right the boat for smooth sailing with minimal damage and loss of speed.

If you have found yourself in a bind with your current vendors and suppliers, not all hope is lost. Teams like Leardon work tirelessly to correct problems with your current vendors to avoid the cost overruns associated with moving tooling to other vendors, renegotiating contracts and repairing damaged relationships/partnerships.

Like the game of Dominoes, failures in the pipeline will affect the overall product. Do not allow your product development problems to balloon to the popping point, step in and get a second opinion if you feel uncomfortable with the current process.

For more information, contact us or visit our product development forums

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Start 2013 With Your Innovative Product Idea

December 27 2012  |   Cliff  |  All Posts, Business Tips, Product Development, Prototyping  |  Comment

Joe Donoghue, San Diego Prototyping, Patents & Prototypes, Live Web Show, Product Development, Engineering Services, Manufacturing, Entrepreneurial Product DevelopmentThe New Year is just around the corner and if you have been thinking about a product idea for a while or built a homemade version of a prototype, perhaps a great New Years Resolution is to pursue your dream of bringing a marketable product to reality in 2013.

Here are some things to think about when it’s time to get serious about building your product.

1) Don’t fall in love with a bad idea

Listen to feedback from friends, family and focus groups. Read the body language of people because often they won’t tell you what they’re really thinking to your face. Don’t fall in love with the first few iterations of your product. Things will change quickly. Be open to feedback and remain flexible.

2) Don’t quit your day job (yet)

When you no longer have a single minute in the day to fulfill purchase orders and you have the money but not the time to scale your business, then it is a good time to consider walking away from your day job. However, until then, hang on to that job that helps pay the rent because many things can change rapidly for better or worse in any area from manufacturing to distribution of your product.

3) Don’t ask just anyone for help

It’s easy to fall into the trap of feeling overwhelmed when developing a product. Reaching out and asking people for help is a good thing, but asking the right people is going to make your life much easier. Do your research and convince rockstars to join your team, even if it’s just an advisory or mentor position. Getting the wrong people involved is a great way to spend a lot of time and money just spinning your wheels.

4) Expect the best but prepare for the worst

Be real with yourself in regards to what you are willing to sacrifice to make this thing work. You may be surprised with how much you don’t need to get by. 

5) Stay positive and remember to smile

From day one, it’s imperative that you are perceived as someone people want to be around and be inspired by. An easy way to achieve this is to keep a positive frame of mind and to smile. It may take some serious effort especially when things get really tough, but in the long term it will pay off. 

Have tips of your own? We would love to hear them.

Also, feel free to contact us with any questions. 

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5 Reason To Develop A Medical Device In Southern California

December 20 2012  |   Cliff  |  All Posts, Business Tips, Medical Device, San Diego, Southern California  |  Comment

Joe Donoghue, San Diego Prototyping, Patents & Prototypes, Live Web Show, Product Development, Engineering Services, Manufacturing, Entrepreneurial Product Development5 Reasons To Develop A Medical Device In Southern California

When it comes to developing a great medical device, you can do no better than to look for services and team members in Southern California to help get your medical device developed and to market.

With a variety of research institutes, universities and some of the best medical device and diagnostic companies in the world located in Southern California, there is an abundance of top tier talent and thought leadership. This is especially true for areas such as Orange County and San Diego.

So where does an entrepreneur or startup team begin when it comes to building a product in Southern California for the medical device industry? Here is our advice:

1) Finding Talent

When it comes to developing a medical device, terms like “design controls”, “compliance”, “regulatory” and “ISO” will come in to play. If you are unfamiliar with these terms, find a consultant, service provider or team member that knows enough about these areas to avoid the major pitfalls.

Use Linkedin, friends, forums, social networks, events and local San Diego / Orange County Universities to help find qualified people to bring into your group.

2) Local Groups

There are many entrepreneurship groups in San Diego and Orange County. These groups are teeming with folks interested in medical device and diagnostic ideas since both San Diego and Orange County are medical device and life-science hubs. A few organizations to look into:

3) Access to Manufacturing

While many products are manufactured overseas, some medical device and diagnostic companies in Southern California manufacture in Southern California or have secured high quality manufacturing just over the border in Mexico which is a short drive from San Diego.

4) Local Product Development Teams That Specialize in Medical Devices

Because of the density of entrepreneurship and experience in Southern California, it’s not uncommon to run across local product development companies that have experience with medical device and diagnostic product development. Look around locally for a team so that you can have the value add of face to face meeting time with your vendor(s).

5) Access to Investment Dollars

Developing a medical device can be a pricey endeavor but fortunately Southern California has it’s fair share of investors that understand the medical device and diagnostic space. Developing your product locally will help get the word out and hopefully attract some capital in the process. 

Need more information about medical device product development, please contact us here.

 

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The Best Industrial Design

December 18 2012  |   Cliff  |  All Posts, Business Tips, Industrial Design, Product Development  |  Comments Off

Leardon Solutions Product Development, Joe Donoghue, San Diego, prototyping, manufacturing, industrial designCreating The Best Industrial Design

Creating the most effective industrial design is no easy task. Achieving the best design that accommodates all aspects of a great product which can be produced for a profit is a tricky proposition that takes more than a just a great design eye to achieve quality fit, form and function.

It is important not to over complicate the process of finding the right design for your product idea. Here are some tips that may help guide you down the right path and help you avoid getting overwhelmed or frustrated to the point where you throw in the towel.

Industrial Design, Product Development, San Diego, Orange County, Prototyping, Leardon Solutions, Leardon.com, Joe Donoghue, Murray Learmonth

Leardon Solutions Industrial Design

1) Do not re-invent the wheel

Are there products on the market that have functions or designs similar to yours, but you think your product can do the same task faster, better or cheaper? Head to the store to play with those products and ask yourself what they did right with their designs and what they didn’t do so well. Are the buttons in the right place? Does the chosen material make the product feel like a quality product? Is the product worth the price they’re asking for it? Does it stick out from the crowd sitting on the shelf? What other types of products does it look like?

2) Hire an industrial designer with access to a product development team

Few things are more frustrating than spending months on an awesome design only to discover that it can’t be manufactured on a larger scale. You will discover that the best industrial design ideas incorporate design for manufacturability. Keep this in mind as you look for an industrial designer that fits your style and ask if the product is being designed with manufacturability in mind. Often, experienced industrial designers will work hand in hand with a product development team as they develop the concept.

3) 3D printing vs. real world manufacturing

While there a number of ways that you can create great a 3D embodiment of your product, don’t fall into the trap of believing a 3D / rapid prototype is going to be final product design. While 3D printing a rapid prototyping is a great and inexpensive way to get an idea of your industrial design, it falls short of proving fit and function verification. If you have a product with multiple moving parts and complex internal functions, a machined prototype mock-up will help prove the concept more effectively and expose any major problems early on in the product development life cycle before those problems are uncovered in production.

4) Hire an experienced industrial designer

Even if your product has the best fit and function, it may not sell simply based on it’s appearance. The best industrial designers understand design, usability, design trends, human behavior and some engineering. A great industrial design places a product within a industry but also makes it stand out. It’s a fine balance.

5) The Wow factor

If you are aiming to sell your product in retail, one of the most important aspects of drawing the consumer in is the “Wow!” factor. The “Wow!” factor is a combination of great design, function, fit and magic. It’s a product that doesn’t scare a consumer off, but instead draws them in by combining familiar fit, form and functions with innovative and outside the box thinking added to all three.

Still have questions? Contact Us for more information about industrial design and product development.

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Wasdio – A San Diego Prototyping Success Story

December 6 2012  |   Cliff  |  All Posts, Business Tips, Crowdfunding, News, Product Design, Prototyping, San Diego  |  Comment

Joe Donoghue, San Diego Prototyping, Patents & Prototypes, Live Web Show, Product Development, Engineering Services, Manufacturing, Entrepreneurial Product DevelopmentAfter two years and two different prototypes, San Diego product entrepreneur Cary Evans has now launched his innovative  PC controller, The Wasdio on Kickstarter in an effort to raise $175,000 in pledges to help build a production version.

Since Evans is a Leardon client and San Diego resident, we thought we would take a moment and ask him about his product development experience and some best tips for prototyping.

Q: Cary, what gave you the inspiration to build a new PC controller?

     Cary: After getting my butt kicked too many times in online games, I realized that I was not a good touch-typer in high stress situations. I knew how I wanted to move, but between the 20+ keys my hand was responsible for, I could not move and switch weapons intuitively. I knew there had to be a better way than the keyboard.

Q: What has been the most challenging part of the journey?

     Cary: Just like video games, each stage of the journey gets more challenging than the last. Right now our project is on Kickstarter and it has been difficult to get press to talk about our project and to help bring awareness to our project.

Q: What has been your biggest lesson with product development?

     A: Our product fits in your hand and ergonomics is a huge factor. With our first prototype, we did not do any 3D print-outs so we could test proportions, button sizes, and how it feels overall in your hand. That being said, we learned to print everything out prior to flushing out a high-fidelity prototype.

Q: How important is it to find the right team that knows the product development life cycle inside and out?

     Cary: Finding the right team that have the skills and personalities that you enjoy working with is always important. Also, working with people that have an understanding of the entire process makes for a better product and easier planning. We have not made it from one end to the other, but so far we have been happy working with an end-to-end provider.

Q: Did you design the prototype to optimize manufacturing efficiency? If so, what were some key areas that needed revising for design for manufacturability?

        Cary: Yes, but ask Murray more about this one :)

  ( Murray Learmonth is VP of engineering at Leardon Solutions ) 

Murray: The parts were designed to minimize the tooling complexity and therefore minimize the tooling investment by the client. Wherever possible standard open/closed part design was adhered to and only using sliding cores where essential. This process is called Design for Manufacturing (DFM)

Q: What changes will you make (if any) to the production version?

      Cary: The purpose of any prototype is to enable you to test it, find improvements and iterate on it. We have a handful of refinements and tweaks that we’ll make before a production version. As an example, our product is essentially a joystick and right now we are refining the amount of tension or force needed to push the stick. These kind of changes are impossible to make without actually feeling it in your hand.

Q: How important do you feel it is to have a real and working prototype to help raise money especially on sites like Kickstarter?

     Cary: I cannot speak to other sites but on Kickstarter, if you have a hardware project, you are required to have a working prototype. You can no longer show just computer renderings. 

Everyone has ideas, but there is a huge difference between having an idea and holding one. Holding an idea demonstrates that it can be done, your commitment to the idea, and allows people to see and use if for themselves.

Q: What is the best tip(s) you could give someone thinking about spending the capital required to prototype a product? 

     Cary: Each stage of the process is about refinement. Before prototyping a product, do a proof of concept of your own. It does not matter how crude it is or what materials are used; paper, cardboard or wood are all a great start. The process of making something with your hands and testing it with friends and family will enable you to refine your idea and put you in a great spot for building a prototype. 

If you have questions about your prototyping process – please feel free to Contact Us for more information.

 

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Why Choose A World Class Manufacturing Partner Early

November 26 2012  |   Cliff  |  All Posts, Business Tips, Insider's Perspective TIps, Inventing Profit  |  Comment

Leardon Solutions Product Development, Joe Donoghue, San Diego, prototyping, manufacturing

Reasons to choose a world class manufacturing partner early.

You’re the design engineer / inventor/ team and you have this great innovative product, you’ve cogged together 10 units, spent a ton of hours and money on getting them built and running and and countless more hours keeping them running. The good news, you’ve got your funding and the OK to move forward, the challenge, taking this design from the “fragile-works-mostly-with-a lot-of support” to producing 10’s of thousands of units with inexpensive parts, simple/fool proof/low cost assembly, with 100% part, assembly and top level yields. A world class manufacturing (WCM)  partner can get you a long ways to this end game with your product. 

Shortly after I started my R&D career at Hewlett Packard two key changes were made in how we organizationally approached product development. First, everyone went to the 3 day workshop on “Market Driven Product Development” and got the religion. No more cool product ideas by the R&D geeks to be developed THEN marketed.  The second big change was the move to cross-functional integrated product development teams (Marketing, Finance, Quality, Manufacturing/Production, and R&D), staffed from the start. The effect of the integrated team was to eliminate the functional silos that existed along with all of the associated problems and inefficiencies associated with the inevitable “us vs. them” thinking. These changes were key enablers to HP becoming a printer powerhouse.  In today’s world of outsourcing and/or off-shoring of manufacturing the silos are back and more problematic. My single most significant piece of advice is eliminate the silos with your outsourced partners and work very hard to be that “well-oiled” integrated development team. Select them early and get them involved early.  

As I mentioned above, by engaging a World Class Manufacturing partner early in the design cycle you can improve product cost, quality, production agility, and time to market in some of the following ways:

  • Taking advantage of economies of scale in the existing supply base. For components and fabricated parts.

  • Fabricated parts designed with high yields ( work every time, fabrication process can easily produce parts to specifications, failure rates are reduced) – See an example of weak yields here ( Apple scrambles to fix it )

  • Avoiding part designs that can be assembled incorrectly.  Parts whose orientation during assemble does not matter or parts that only fit will improve product yields and quality.

  • Avoiding special tools, fixturing, and/or tests on the production line.

These are just a few of the obvious benefits that should flow from a world class manufacturing partner. If not, consider engaging a manufacturing engineering consultant to work with your manufacturer to achieve the benefits of Design for manufacturability.

Have questions about manufacturing? Contact Us Here.

This post is written by Mike Hoggatt – Leardon’s Director of Product Development

 

 

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iFactory Plays Host To The Best Product Development

November 20 2012  |   Cliff  |  All Posts, Business Tips, events, Northern Ireland, Product Design, Product Development, U.K.  |  Comment

Joe Donoghue, San Diego Prototyping, Patents & Prototypes, Live Web Show, Product Development, Engineering Services, Manufacturing, Entrepreneurial Product DevelopmentOn 8 and 9 November 2012 iFactory played host to product development experts, entrepreneurs and small businesses in Belfast, Northern Ireland and Letterkenny, Ireland.

If you are in the Republic of Ireland or Northern Ireland, U.K. and looking to further develop a product idea into a business, the team at iFactory can help. Leardon Solutions was invited to speak as part of this two-day iFactory event. Joe Donoghue and Murray Learmonth from Leardon Solutions spoke about entrepreneurial product development and how to be successful even when your resources are limited.

The event was part of the iFactory iLearning series with this particular event titled “Product Design – The blocks for success” and featured keynote speaker Christian Majgaard M.Sc.,B.A. who is known as “The Man Who Recaptured The True Mission Of Lego”. iFactory, part-financed by the European Union’s European Regional Development Fund through the Interreg IVA Cross Border Programme, is an innovation support programme helping small businesses grow their companies.

Some of the main topics that were covered during the event included a session about product development in general as well as a motivating presentation by Mr. Majgaard discussing the customer focused product development at Lego. Participants of the events were curious about developing a prototype and what to expect from the process in terms of cost and time involvement. Leardon provided sound advice based on their industrial design, prototyping, manufacturing, and product development life cycle knowledge.

Joe Donoghue, Apt Floe, Leardon Solutions, Northern Ireland

From left to right: Dr. Barney Toal, Jason Paul and Joe Donoghue

Rory Campbell, Anita Murphy, Eunan Cunningham

Also featured were a few success stories such as the Apt Innovations Floe Drain Down System and Rory’s Story Cubes.

For more information feel free to contact us.

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