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Prevent Quality Issues With Your Factory

March 19 2013  |   Cliff  |  All Posts, Manufacturing, Manufacturing Tips  |  Comment

The Leardon Solutions Logo Represents Innovation And Quality From Medical Devices To Consumer GoodsQuality Control

A great factory relationship for a product development team is nothing short of a god send. However, until you have that relationship established, usually through a lot of business, the entrepreneur or startup can find themselves in a difficult situation with costs, quality and delivery.

Quality can often be the center of attention when product starts arriving to customers and the feedback is not all positive.

So how does an entrepreneur / startup team avoid quality issues when working with new or existing factory relationships?

One way NOT to handle it is through traditional finger pointing. Fewer things outside of finger pointing will guarantee irreparable damage to your customer / factory relationship quicker than asserting blame instead of focusing on solving the most pressing problems that are hording resources and stalling the product development lifecycle and manufacturing.

Often entrepreneurs / startups are quick to terminate the relationship with the factory based on quality , costs and delivery issues. We always encourage working with the factories and vendors already in place to resolve issues. The reality is, there will always be issues regardless of how good the team or factory is. Identifying a new factory, moving tooling and getting contracts into place with no guarantee of resolving the current issue at hand can be a tremendous waste of time and money.

If you find you and your team in over your heads with your current factory relationships, it would be a good time to bring in a project based or hourly consultant that has experience in your industry and relationships with factories. By doing so, you are reducing risk and decreasing your time to market.

If you have questions about your factory relationships and quality control, please contact us.

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A Tip To Navigate Around Minimum Order Quantity

February 26 2013  |   Cliff  |  All Posts, Manufacturing, Manufacturing Tips  |  1 Comment

The Leardon Solutions Logo Represents Innovation And Quality From Medical Devices To Consumer Goods

Minimum Order Quantity

One aspect of product development that often catches people new to product development by surprise is the practice of minimum order quantity.

Minimum order quantity is the minimum order a vendor will take before beginning work on your product. When it comes time to manufacture your product, minimum order quantity or the “M.O.Q.” as it is known will be a large part of every manufacturing decision that you’ll have to make.

So how do you navigate around an M.O.Q. as a startup or small business that doesn’t need 60,000 of the widgets that you will be producing? Maybe you only need a 1000 or 100 just to test the market before committing to larger quantities. The low number M.O.Q. can be a significant hurdle to overcome.

One very effective way to reduce the M.O.Q requirements is to have a great relationship with your manufacturer of choice, this will carry a lot of weight when it come to negotiating an order quantity that is affordable for you and fair for the manufacturer – this is especially true overseas where business and personal relationships often overlap.

If you know that you want to have small trial run of your product before committing to a larger order then it would be wise to partner with a team of folks that have relationships with manufacturers in your industry. By doing so, you are also adding some level of quality control to the manufacturing process. This can be especially important if the factory is far away and you can’t afford to have people there to audit the end product before it is packaged and shipped.

Have questions about your MOQ? Contact Us for assistance.

 

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Tips To Reduce Your Product Development Minimum Order Quantity

February 19 2013  |   Cliff  |  All Posts, Manufacturing, Manufacturing Tips  |  Comment

The Leardon Solutions Logo Represents Innovation And Quality From Medical Devices To Consumer GoodsMinimum Order Quantity

or “MOQ” as it is known in the manufacturing industry simply defines the number of units that a manufacturer requires before accepting an order.

Manufacturers make their profit margins and keep costs down by producing products in large quantities. This cost savings practice directly impacts the manufactured product.

M.O.Q.s affects every type of manufacturing from screws to complicated medical devices and consumer products. Understanding how an M.O.Q. works is vital to the success of a product.

If you are an entrepreneur, startup or small businesses and negotiating minimum order quantities is not your specialty, The Leardon Solutions team recommends that you find someone to work with that can help use an M.O.Q. to your advantage.

There are several factors that affect the M.O.Q. – Here are a few.

1) First off, not all manufacturers have the same M.O.Q. for a product. Shop your prototype around and get quotes to compare. What you are likely to discover is that there will be large discrepancy between some quotes and others. This could be for a number of reasons – all of which should be explored before signing on the dotted line.

2) Core Competencies -

The core competency of a manufacturer can impact the M.O.Q. of a product. A manufacturer may or may not have experience building a product like yours. If they do and they can re-purpose a strategy or equipment already set up the M.O.Q. may be reduced.

3) Manufacturer Relationships

Like many other industries, great relationships go a long way with manufacturing. Working with a team or individual that has built a relationship with manufacturers will give an entrepreneur, startup team or small business a BIG competitive advantage. An example of this would be working with a top tier manufacturer while producing a relatively low number of products on the first round. The benefits of a large manufacturer are quality control, stronger core competencies and sometimes more efficient workflows that help reduce costs.

Have questions about minimum order quantities, please contact us Here.

 

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Product Development Is NOT Product Manufacturing

January 24 2013  |   Cliff  |  All Posts, Manufacturing, Manufacturing Tips, Product Development  |  Comment

Joe Donoghue, San Diego Prototyping, Patents & Prototypes, Live Web Show, Product Development, Engineering Services, Manufacturing, Entrepreneurial Product DevelopmentIf you are looking to develop a product, it’s important to know the key differences between product development and product manufacturing. The two terms are often confused and the expectations of each are vastly different.

What Is Product Development?

Product development requires that a creative team of engineers, industrial designers and program managers work in sync to solve unique problems related to functionality, design, standards and the costs of a product idea.

By in large, a process is followed and often referred to as the product development lifecycle. This lifecycle includes gates and checkpoints that help the product development team reduce failure rates, avoid common pitfalls and design the product for manufacturability.

Generally, the product development lifecycle can take far longer than the actual manufacturing of a product. When performed correctly, product development will reduce manufacturing time and costs by achieving the aforementioned goals.

Product Manufacturing

After the product development has been completed and production prototypes have been fully qualified, manufacturing is ready to begin. A well designed product can be replicated thousands of times with consistent performance results directly off the production line.

Comparatively, manufacturing a product is easier since most variables and unique problems to that particular product have been solved and worked into the production prototype which was designed with manufacturability in mind.

Common pitfalls to watch for during product manufacturing include quality control, materials sourcing issues, labor problems and missed delivery dates.

If you have questions about product development or manufacturing, please contact us here for more information.

 

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Best Tips For Medical Device Manufacturing

January 17 2013  |   Cliff  |  All Posts, Business Tips, Manufacturing Tips, Medical Device  |  Comments Off

Joe Donoghue, San Diego Prototyping, Patents & Prototypes, Live Web Show, Product Development, Engineering Services, Manufacturing, Entrepreneurial Product DevelopmentWhen it comes to medical device product development, the fragmentation of the industry can be challenging. Medical device development and manufacturing have seen many changes in the last decade and it is arguable that global product development is one of the most exciting topics related to medical product development.

Leveraging the global supply chain for Medical Device Manufacturing

#1) With a large amount of investment dollars earmarked for medical devices, competition for the business is fierce. Not too long ago, manufacturing anything in a different country was risky and time intensive but now new communication technologies have allowed for the rapid development and manufacturing of medical devices overseas which has reduced costs and time to market. Developed and developing countries are investing in high quality medical device manufacturing facilities that allow sourcing of design and manufacturing throughout the world.

Don’t re-invent the wheel. Seek out experienced professionals

#2) Partnering up with a team that is familiar with medical device product development and manufacturing can make the process much easier. Experienced teams will:

 

  •  Provide proper documentation of design history files and device master record

 

  •  Make use of medical grade materials that eases certification and submittable requirements

 

  •  Manufacture the product locally to supply the local market demand

Understand domestic and globals standards

#3) When looking for a product development and  / or a manufacturing partner, consider working with an experienced team that can help navigate the stringent domestic and global standards from day one to avoid costly redesigns or sourcing issues.

Have questions about medical device product development and manufacturing? Contact us here.

 

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Secrets Of Crowdfunding Success

December 11 2012  |   Cliff  |  All Posts, Crowdfunding, Manufacturing, Manufacturing Tips, Prototyping, Supplier Management  |  Comment

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

Crowdfunding hasn’t been around long, but it changed the face of product development by allowing people to vote with their money and that is a powerful thing when it comes to preparing product for market. At Leardon we have had the privilege to work with crowdfunded entrepreneurs. In doing so, we’ve compiled some advice based on our experiences. 

A quick list of our recommendations for crowdfunding success:

1) For better or worse, Your product is in the public eye.

    Our advice: Attempt to lock in quotes and estimates prior to raising any funding. Once your campaign is successful, vendors and service providers will not have to look too hard to find out how deep your pockets are. Be strategic to avoid being taken advantage of. 

2) The 80 / 20 Rule

     Our advice: A fancy prototype can get you pretty far, but successfully crowdfunded entrepreneurs have told us how surprised they were to have to do an extreme amount of marketing. If your campaign is successful, it may be because you spent 80% of your time marketing it and 20% doing everything else. Don’t hesitate to reach out to every single person you know to ask them to spread the word. Make it easy for them to share the information and remember to include a call to action in everything. Social media, local TV, blogs and experts will work to your advantage, make relationships prior to the campaign launch. 

3) Design for manufacturability

     Finding out your prototype isn’t manufacturable sucks, but it really really sucks after you’ve taken 50k in orders.
    Our advice: Prototype as far you can until you absolutely need funding. Regardless if your idea is software or hardware, always consider designing for scalability. If you are unfamiliar with this process, reach out to product development teams that specialize in end-to-end product development and that can design for manufacturability.

4) Walk the Walk – Talk the Talk :

Let’s face it, until manufacturing comes back the US, chances are that you will be building your products overseas to compete with global competition. You may find yourself in a sticky situation if you do not know much about your partners overseas.
    Our advice : Consider finding service providers that have reps, project managers, engineers, ect..  in the areas where you will be manufacturing. Their ability to perform a factory audit, speak with factory managers and correct issues before you start shipping product to customers will save face and your business. 

5) Watch every cent, do what you know how to do well and get help when you are far out of your comfort zone. 

For questions related to product development, please reach feel free to contact us.

 

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Best Tips To Design For Manufacturing or DFM

October 9 2012  |   Cliff  |  All Posts, Business Tips, Manufacturing, Manufacturing Tips  |  Comment

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

A list of tips to consider when you begin to design for manufacturing ( DFM )

 

 

Designing for Production

The maker movement is on. Mass production is no longer a game only to be played by corporate giants. The internet has given individual inventors, entrepreneurs, startups and  small to medium sized businesses the tools and communities to market, fundraise, and distribute their products. Anyone with an idea can bring that idea to consumers as a product with speed and cost efficiency never available before.

However, a good idea will only get you so far. As an electrical engineer working with inventors on a daily basis, I see people falling into the same pitfalls over and over again. Their ideas are good and they are always well motivated but they typically are not production minded. A working prototype is a great way to show investors and customers what a product does but if that prototype cannot be reproduced in a reliable and inexpensive manner, you’ll have to invest time and money getting your design ready for production. Keep in mind that the term production doesn’t have to refer to a massive factory; production can be done in your living room. Regardless, the same principles still apply: the less time you spend putting something together, the more time you’ll have to do other things that drive your business. You should be thinking about production as early as the prototyping phase. Why do something twice when you can do it right the first time?

With that primer, here are some quick tips on production for electronic designers / entrepreneurs / inventors to be thinking about when it is time to design for manufacturing.

 

Design for Manufacturing

You know those little things that annoyed you while you were building your prototype? Like how hard it was to plug in the connectors because too many tall components were nearby? Or how you had to repair a PCB because a trace was routed to close to the board edge and was sheared off? Well, imagine how annoyed you’ll be dealing with those issues over and over again in production. And if someone else is manufacturing the product for you, it’ll annoy them too and they’ll make sure you pay for that annoyance in dollars. Trust me, contract manufactures know what they’re doing. They’ll spot manufacturing issues from a mile away and include that cost in your quote. Take advantage of that knowledge: show your design to a contract manufacturer. They’ll let you know the issues and how to resolve them.

Design for Reliability

Nothing does more damage to your bottom line and brand than a product failure in the field. The way to reduce failures is to design with margin and test, test, test. Test the margins in your system while you are prototyping. What if you increase your clock speed? Can your design handle it? Operating on the edge of the capabilities of the board design is a recipe for disaster because the stars will align eventually and you’ll experience failures. Be sure to test the life of your product too. What’s your product meant to do? Whatever it is, find a way to repeatedly test that functionality over and over again day and night. Your goal is to test years of normal use in a period of days or weeks. Any issues you find and resolve during life testing is one less defect users will experience.  This means happier customers and less time and money spent on resolving failures in the field.

For more information, please feel free to contact us.

This article is written by Ryan Wilshusen, The director of engineering at Leardon Solutions

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Tips To Reduce Your Time-To-Market

October 2 2012  |   Cliff  |  All Posts, Business Tips, Manufacturing Tips, Product Development  |  Comment

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

Reduce your time-to-market.

When developing products, an entrepreneur, startup, inventor or small business can rarely assume that the market will wait or that a competitor will not introduce something smaller, better, faster, and at a lower price point. Therefore, reducing time-to-market (TTM) is a key requirement for business success and can be a competitive advantage for those that do it right.

Here are a few areas to consider that will help your organization improve time-to-market:

• Product specification

• Fast prototyping

• Incremental design

• Lean development teams

Product specification can take on a variety of forms and many times is not just one document but a collection of documents. Whatever the form, when the design of the first prototypes begins it must have cross-organizational support that delivering to this specification will produce a viable product (price, features, product cost, investment, schedule)  in the market place without additions, modifications, or deletions. This may not be absolutely achievable in the real world of product development, but the point to be made here is that a moving spec can produce major design resets, adds complexity and produces secondary defects which will lengthen TTM, increase investment cost and potential product costs.

Fast prototyping can reduce your time to market. The team that can design, build, test, and fix (DBTF)) often has a huge market advantage! Concurrent engineering efforts, shorter DBTF cycles for subsystems with periodic fully integrated product builds, fast tooling suppliers, and using a plethora of fast fabrication methods for parts all contribute to taking weeks off schedules.

Incremental design and innovation must be considered in shortening time-to-market.  If design of complex systems was easy then there wouldn’t be a need for iterative design cycles, it would just be design, build, and ship. But it is very difficult and the “does everything” or “innovate in all subsystems” in order to kill the competition mentality will guarantee cost overruns, schedule slips, late spec changes, etc. The essence of incremental innovation is to complete the product development cycle many times over a period of time which results in significantly greater organizational learning, revenue generation, and market understanding.

Development team should be cross-organizational, at the very least members from marketing and manufacturing. While team size will be driven by the project, many times there are just too many people involved in the development. They add very little and many times just suck bandwidth away from the value add engineering. Full-time vs. part-time is the key to a small team and maintaining team integrity for the entire length of development is important.

Have questions on how you can improve your time to market? Contact us here.

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Product Development and Manufacturing Ten Commandments

September 4 2012  |   leardonsolutions  |  All Posts, Business Tips, Engineering, Manufacturing, Manufacturing Tips, Northern Ireland, Product Development, Prototyping, San Diego  |  Comment

Leardon Solutions Product Development, Manufacturing, San Diego, Ireland, Southern California, Inventor, SME, Joe Donoghue

The Product Development and Manufacturing Ten Commandments

All product development teams that have gone through a full development cycle to design, prototype, and manufacture their product have learned that there are a set of rules that when followed result in a streamlined and successful process. Some SMEs and entrepreneurs learn this the hard way by making mistakes while others hire experts in the field who have the experience to prevent the mistakes. It doesn’t matter if you are a medium sized business in San Diego, Southern California or a entrepreneurial start-up company in Northern Ireland, the rules are the same and must be followed for success. We have taken decades of product development experience from our team and created the Product Development and Manufacturing Ten Commandments to benefit our readers.

1. Avoid feature creep by rigorously defining your product before making or designing any prototypes.

2. Decide if the product features, the project/product cost, or the project schedule is the most important project priority and manage the program appropriately.

3. Make early Proof-of-Concept and Integrated Design Prototypes to validate the product functionality.

4. Work with one service provider to avoid multiple design hand-offs during the development life cycle and increase accountability. This is typically considered an end-to-end solution.

5. Maintain a strong relationship with the chosen manufacturing supplier and understand all cultural differences.

6. Only release the design for production tooling when all prototype qualification is complete and purchase the appropriate tooling based on quantity, expected part prices, and tool life.

7. Before starting production of customer-shippable products, qualify all the production tools, parts, and the final product.

8. Allow enough time to make the initial order of customer products and staff appropriately with design and manufacturing engineers to resolve the inevitable issues encountered.

9. Only make changes to the design or manufacturing processes in production when there are serious issues that result in safety or shipment issues.

10. Manage the stable production and don’t get complacent.

If you have questions about any of these Product Development and Manufacturing Ten Commandments, please feel free to contact us.

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I have found a manufacturer for my product idea. Now what? Part 3 of 3

July 3 2012  |   leardonsolutions  |  All Posts, Manufacturing, Manufacturing Tips  |  Comment

Leardon Solutions Product DevelopmentHow to Manage Production Quality From Your Manufacturer

This is the last of three posts covering the steps that should be taken once a start-up company, entrepreneur, or inventor finds a  manufacturer for their product. 

• First, the company should put all manufacturers through a supplier selection process to identify the one supplier to move forward with into manufacturing.

• Next, the company should qualify the product manufactured by the manufacturer prior to moving onto the next step of starting volume production and managing the production quality.

Once production begins, there are many checks and balances throughout the manufacturing and production system that are implemented to ensure that the resulting product functions as expected and all parts meet their documented specifications. These checks and balances make up the product quality plan which must be put into place and properly executed when the product is in production. The field of quality management has been around for over a hundred years and managing production quality is a skill that requires years of experience and training. Experts in this field not only understand the function of the product but also have a background in statistics, probability, and the theory behind product sampling plans. It is recommended that those not trained in the field ask the manufacturer for their product quality plan and take it to a professional who can provide advise on the validity and effectiveness of the plan.

The quality plan consists of those checks and balances that occur at different frequencies throughout the part fabrication and product assembly processes. Some common aspects of a quality plan are described below.

  • Incoming Quality Control The incoming quality control (IQC) occurs on parts and components that are used in the assembly process. Typically, this is done on an audit basis (inspect a sample of parts rather than 100% of the parts) and the complete lot is either accepted or rejected based on the results of the test.
  • In-Process Quality Control After the parts are accepted in IQC, they are sent to the assembly process. During the assembly process, there are many checks and balances carried out by automation or by humans. These checks ensure that the product is being assembled properly. Also throughout the product assembly line, there are functional tests that are performed on the complete assembly or subassembly to ensure it functions as expected. These checks occur on 100% of the products.
  • Outgoing Quality Control Prior to shipment of the final assembled product, a sample of the finished goods inventory (FGI) is passed through tests and checks to be sure that they meet the expected quality levels. If the sampled products pass all the required tests and quality checks, the complete lot of FGI is released for shipment. If a higher than allowed number of products from the sample do not pass the quality checks, the FGI lot is rejected with 100% inspection and rework/repair necessary.
  • Process Audits During production, a set sample of products are typically taken from the production line and checked to be sure the assembly and test processes are being performed properly. This audit ensures that the processes are not drifting from the expected values.
  • Functionality and Performance Audit Another audit that is done on the finished goods inventory (FGI) is a functional, life, and performance test of the product. These tests are done to be sure that the product is meeting its functional specifications throughout the operational life of the product.
  • Regulatory and Safety Audit Since every product must meet country-specific regulatory and safety requirements, audits are performed on a periodic basis to be sure that the product still meets the regulations.

When a manufacturer has a well defined product quality plan and executes it diligently, the product quality will be maintained at the highest levels and product returns from customers will be minimized. Work with the manufacturing supplier and a quality engineer to implement the quality plan and avoid unnecessary headaches.

Need more information on new product development or or how to select a manufacturer? Please contact us with any questions or contact me directly at joseph.donoghue ( at ) leardon.com

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