How to Navigate the Design and Production Processes
Choosing the right product design and production method involves a lot of trial and error. You also need the perfect team that will deliver on your needs without much fuss. This complex multi-step process is a blend between engineering and designing. At Creatingway, we guide our clients through knowing how to navigate the design and production processes. Here is an overview of the key steps it takes to develop a product and the processes involved in producing it.
Six Main Points For Your Design and Production Processes
Idea Generation Stage
The product design process starts by knowing the target group and their needs. New ideas can come from both inside and outside your business. Common internal sources for ideas include the research and development team, employees, sales team, and reverse engineering team. Meanwhile, the external source of new ideas comprises clients, technology, environment, and laws. In addition, your rivals can be a great source of ideas for new services or products.
You can learn from your rivals through benchmarking, perceptual maps, and reverse engineering. Perceptual mapping entails comparing the client’s perception of your product to your rival’s products. Benchmarking is a two-step process that first involves finding the best product in the market similar to yours. Later, you compare its performance to your product and make any changes to improve it.
Reverse dismantling first involves accurately breaking down and inspecting your rival’s product. Later, you look for design features you can use to improve your product. For precise and time-efficient results, you need top-notch rapid prototyping services like that at Creatingway.
Idea Screening Stage
The second step in knowing how to navigate the design and production processes is the screening ideas stage. This stage is crucial to eliminate ideas that don’t seem to have great potential. It is a great way of helping you avoid incurring extra costs in subsequent stages. First, have your design team come up with a proposal for your idea.
For proper vetting, you need to accompany proposals with models, graphics, and an outline of the specs. CNC machining allows you to develop a proposal as all the features needed for vetting are in the CAD model. The vetting happens against a set of criteria like:
- The extent of overlap with existing services or products
- Use of existing production processes
- Impact on the company’s sales and profits
- Role in replacing an existing service or product
You can grade these different criteria on a scale of 1-10 to better assess your ideas. The resulting final score will help you decide which ideas proceed to the third stage.
Feasibility Study
The third step in knowing how to navigate the design and production processes is the feasibility study. This study involves doing a market, technical, economic, and strategic analysis. The market analysis involves using the approved idea to come up with other product concepts. You then put these concepts through client analysis and market surveys. Eventually, you’ll find out if there is enough demand for the proposed product.
When there is sufficient demand, you can move on to do an economic analysis. This step helps you find out the development and production costs by comparing them against sale volume estimates. You can study the product’s profit potential through methods like cost-benefit analysis.
With a good profit potential, you can proceed to perform technical analysis. This step involves studying the viability of the product with technology and varying production processes. It is better when the product goes well with different machining.
Initial Design
The fourth step in knowing how to navigate the design and production processes is the initial design stage. Your design engineers will take general specs and change them to technical specs. The steps involved include building a prototype, testing it, revising it, and then retesting. You repeat these steps until a viable design that combines both function and form comes up. Form design is the size, shape, styling, and color. Other features like market appeal, image, finish, and unique marker also make up the form design.
To start, you may have to simplify the design. By simplifying, you reduce the number of parts it takes to form the product. This process ensures the use of commonly available parts. Also, you can come up with a modular design. It involves combining standard modules in an array of ways to create a unique final product. We advise the use of modular design in the vehicle and electronics sector.
Final Design and Production Process Plans
The fifth step in knowing how to navigate the design and production processes is the final design stage. This stage involves coming up with detailed drawings and specs for the new product. We can help you in drafting the process plans that include workable instructions for production. A few of these instructions are the equipment and tooling, programs for computer-aided machines, and the level of the skill set needed.
New Product Launch
The sixth and final step in knowing how to navigate the design and production processes is the product launch. By now, you have a refined but untested production process. Before ramping up production, you can start with low-volume production processes like urethane vacuum casting or injection molding.
Why Choose Creatingway?
Throughout the stages of design and production, you will encounter processes that need expert handling. At Creatingway, we strive to ensure every process meets your expectations. Contact us now to get started.
Creatingway concentrates on CNC machining manufacturing, prototype machining, low-volume manufacturing, metal fabrication, and parts finishing services, providing you with the best support and services. ask us one inquire now.
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