End-to-End Delivery
Business idea
The customer has an invention, which presents a business opportunity. The invention requires novel devices or products, which need to be developed and industrialised for the market. We can support the business calculations by offering our wide experience, optimising the best technical solution with a roadmap of suitable manufacturing technologies and methods.
Product brief
The product brief contains essential information about the case and the product to be developed. The product brief contains a description of the product’s primary use, intended market, product strategy, and competitive advantages. The document lists the key attributes or characteristics of the product, uses case descriptions, and highlights critical technologies, target cost and target price. The document also contains essential project information, such as budgetary development cost, schedules, intended milestones, and known significant risks. This document, together with the project budget, schedule and business case, may initially serve as a proposal for the project.
The product brief also communicates what the project is about to team members and other members of the management. In addition, it provides boundary conditions for managing the project and communicating updates, and finally, it becomes a project management and quality record for tracking successful completion of key milestones and the outcome of the project. When the product brief is ready, all its development project and product related requirements and objectives are transformed into a design input document, which is the guideline for product concepting and development.
Product concepting
Concepting creates and evaluates a product’s architecture, structure and usability. The product concept and product structure are developed to fulfil the purpose of the product. During concepting, the most critical parts are identified, so that high level electronics and software architecture can be created.
The design input turns ideas into reality. This phase involves several design disciplines:
- Industrial design
- Mechanics design
- Electronics hardware design
- Embedded software design
- Antenna design
- UI design
The main product characteristics that are created during this phase are
- Outlook, size, form factor
- Costructual architecture
- Materials
- User interface
- Connectivity
- Usability
- Quality
- Functionality
The concepts are visualised with macro level prototypes and appearance models. This phase produces multiple different concepts, which are evaluated against the product brief and the design input. The chosen concept(s) are then finalised in the product development phase.
Product development
Product development turns the chosen product concept into a more detailed product design solution. This phase optimises the performance, functionality, manufacturability, and assembly hierarchy of the products. Industrial design reaches its final form (ergonomics, colours, etc). The product mechanics’ architecture will be generated for parts and assemblies. Manufacturability design assumes a bigger role in this phase. Hardware, electronics and software development are integrated into product design. Prototypes in this phase become more detailed; their appearance and technical readiness are approaching the final product. The product development phase brings the concept design alive.
Testing and verification
We produce fast delivery and high-quality prototypes. Creating prototypes and testing them are an essential part of agile product development. Our testing reveals any problem areas in time, and changes can be implemented immediately. Our prototypes are made using 3D printing, mould techniques and machining. We test the conformity of product parts and configurations for the specified requirements according to specific quality systems. We use the most authentic materials and production methods possible in the products to be tested.
We use test equipment for verification. Examples of our testing features include thermal resistance, moisture resistance, corrosion, drop/shock resistance, IP rating, ESD (electrostatics), dynamic vibration, and mould analyses.
Manufacturability optimisation
Manufacturability planning is part of concepting and product design. We optimise the manufacturability of products and devices, and solve production technology challenges (DFM) and assembly (DFA).
Quite often manufacturability is a compromised result by several stakeholders’ opinions and practises. Since we can supply what we are designing, we don’t need to make compromises.
We have long experience and comprehensive know-how of several manufacturing technologies, their suitability to specific purposes and development project phases.
- Emphasis in quality
- Manufacturing cost
- Lifetime cost
- Product price
Production
As a full-service product development partner, we offer our customers all necessary product development services from the solution all the way to production. We will also assist you in getting production going quickly, and growing it gradually.
We have experienced, that starting the production close to product development is speeding up the ramp up and helping to reach the quality targets faster. In our process, designers are involved the production start together with production people, so they can give hands on support to the start. By participating in the production, designers can also absorb a lot of information and develop as designers.
We can offer design transfer to production inhouse by customer, customer nominated 3rd party or we can offer production executed by us. Everything goes from piloting or small volume production to larger scale production.
Maintenance
The completion of a product’s development begins the process of its maintenance. When the product’s design is completed and it is transferred into production, we continue post development by doing improvements, cost reductions, and second source scanning. Furthermore, we often plan the next product generation according to the customer’s product roadmap.
By making through all these steps along with customer developing our idea of partnership. Then we can say – we add value!