Our research has shown that as much as 40% of a product development cost and 60% of product development time is related to errors in the drawings. For every mistake on a drawing, parts have to be re-made and tests have to be done again. Further, often a mistake in one drawing percolates through the… Read More

Design Verification Testing (DVT) is one of the stage-gate processes for developing a product. The DVT stage verifies that the engineering drawings, if followed correctly, will produce a product that will meet the product requirements. In short, a DVT proves the design “works” where “works” = meets the requirements. A DVT is important for several… Read More

In our research on why product development often exceeds the initial budget estimate, we found more than 60% of the root cause to be a failure to understand all the tasks that needed to be done to complete the project. Most engineering teams were good at determining how many man-hours it would take to complete… Read More

If a product fails to meet customer expectations (the definition of quality), then there are three possibility causes: The manufacturer failed to maintain drawing compliance. The drawings failed to produce a product that meets the requirements. The product was used outside the product requirements. Production can only make a product as good as the documentation…. Read More

One could argue that Conceptual Design (CD) is the most important phase of product development as it determines 90% of the market success of the product (see). What is the process for conducting a Conceptual Design: Assemble a large and diverse team: It’s no secret that the more diverse the team is, the more innovative… Read More

One could argue that Conceptual Design (CD) is the most important phase of product development as it determines 90% of the market success of the product (see) Here are 5 tips to help you improve your Conceptual Design process: Tip #1: Use a large and diverse team: It’s no secret that the more diverse the… Read More

How well a product performs in the marketplace is almost entirely determined by the product’s conceptual design (see). However, most of the product development cost is in the detail design phase. It follows that if the conceptual design is not optimized, you may spend a lot of money and get very little from your product… Read More

China is known for its manufacturing abilities and many great products are made there. However, it is a different country with different laws and a different culture. These differences can lead to real problems for US-based companies, especially small companies and startups that may not have the experience to manage these differences. One area that… Read More

Many companies made a decision to source product/production in China based on a “myth.” For some of these companies, China turned out to be the right choice, even if the decision-making process was flawed. For others, they now have to spend money and time finding, vetting, educating, and transferring products to new geographies. What are… Read More

Reshoring a product is not as simple as giving the drawings to a new US contract manufacturer (CM). Here is a List of possible design issues to consider: Translation: Don’t just run the words through a Chinese translator — get an engineer experienced in the discipline to create new English words that will make sense… Read More