Here are five ways in which Crucible can help you minimise your product development risks:
1. Solve the right problem
One of the greatest risks taken by any company is selecting which product to develop – and deciding on the correct specification. Making these decisions requires a whole host of information including knowledge of the market, your customers, the competition, technical developments and the economy. The best way to minimise the risks associated with these factors is to form a development team that includes representatives from marketing, sales, technical development, manufacturing, finance – and design. This team should be totally focussed on customer needs and all the issues represented by the team should be considered at every meeting. It is also important that the team is made up of the same people at each meeting to ensure consistency and to avoid discussing the same issues time and again.
2. Stage investments
Product development is an expensive activity, and you can minimise the risk of wasted investment by implementing the project in clearly defined stages. Each stage should have to meet specific criteria before any more money is spent. For example, if there is a possibility that your product idea might infringe someone else’s patent, make sure you investigate this before you spend any money on development. The issues you need to investigate will depend on the product you are developing, but common issues include legal (intellectual property); technical (basic functionality and performance); financial (cost of tooling investment and parts); and the market (user acceptance and demand). Also, make sure you are working with design consultants who charge for each stage separately – to give you control over your costs and progress. If you would like to know more about this approach, and how it can be applied to your project, please call us on (01235) 833785.
3. Make full use of prototypes
James Dyson often refers to building 5,000 prototypes of his cyclone vacuum cleaner, whereas some companies appear to think that the use of computer-assisted design tools means that prototypes are no longer necessary. The reality is that prototypes are vital design tools that identify and help resolve problems that would otherwise affect the final product. Prototypes really fall into two categories – development and production. Development prototypes will be lacking in visual detail and may have rough surfaces, but they enable technical issues to be resolved quickly. Production prototypes are the most important. They enable the final design to be simulated as a one-off to check that everything fits, works and looks right. To begin manufacture without building a production prototype is extremely risky and can be commercially disastrous.
4. Select the right production partners
Probably the greatest risk in any product development project is the selection of the specialists or sub-contractors who will produce your new tooling or manufacture your parts and assemblies. You can minimise the risks of working with the wrong suppliers by looking at their track record of similar parts, talking to their customers, checking out their commercial position (we use riskdisk.com) and reading their terms and conditions very carefully. Once you have selected a good supplier, you can further minimise your risks by getting them fully involved, preferably at an early stage in the project. Suppliers whose expertise and experience are valued will always deliver a better service – and product – than those who are treated merely as hired hands. Specialists with years of experience can also add significant value to a project – and help avoid expensive errors.
5. Work to realistic timescales
The last few stages of product development projects are often rushed – and it is easy to see why, with delivery deadlines and sales targets to meet. Unfortunately, these last stages are also vital ones for the new product – testing, production trials, issues of quality and finish, etc. Realistically, there is no easy solution to this problem, but it is important to recognise that putting what is essentially an unfinished product on the market is a major commercial risk, and should be avoided at all costs. The only way to minimise the chances of this situation occurring is to allow plenty of ‘down time’ in the project plan to allow for the inevitable tooling delays, holidays, illnesses, delivery delays, snow storms – and pure bad luck. We would be happy to help you look at the likely lead times for the different stages of your project to help map out a realistic time plan – or advise on all the other strategies outlined above. Please call us on (01235) 833785 to arrange a meeting.
Download this page as a pdf file