What are the steps required to bring a product to market?
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When considering designing a new product the following steps should be
followed:
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Patent Search - Make sure that the
idea is not already protected by existing patents.
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 Marketing
Plan or Study - Is there actually
demand for this product? Can a market be generated? I have
found that this is the most overlooked aspect of new product
development. The cost of kicking off a new product and developing
a market for that product will dwarf the cost of the engineering
development. If your quotes for development are more than you can
afford, than you are unlikely to be able to afford the marketing of the
product unless you can find a marketing partner. You should have a good
idea how you are going to go about marketing your product and how to
finance that activity before you begin the engineering development.
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 Specification
Development -
Before a any design firm can begin to engineer a new product, they have
to have a road map of how to get there. That road map is a product
specification. A detailed specification describes the mechanical,
electrical, and functional requirement for the product. KinTech
can assist with specifications development. Questions to ask when
developing the specifications are:
- How big (or small) is the device (physical dimensions)?
- How is it to be powered (batteries, wall transformer, etc)?
- How is the user to interface with the device (controls,
switches, etc)?
- What is it supposed to do (function description)?
- Select A Design Company
- Just call KinTech.
- Review Specification
- Customer Specifications are reviewed by KinTech. Costs are
estimated. Kintech will check for regulatory requirements such as
FDA, FCC, or UL.
- Create Schedule and Design Plan
- A detailed design plan, testing plan, schedule and cost estimation are
generated.
- Detailed Design
- KinTech will perform the following steps when
designing the product:
- Create Schematics or Circuit Diagram as
needed. This includes parts research and circuit simulation.
- Bill of Material (BOM) creation for the
circuit assembly.
- Mechanical Packaging or Assembly design as
needed.
- Software design, flow charts or software
modeling as needed.
- Parts and materials procurement as needed.
- Prototype Generation of hardware.
- Software coding.
- Troubleshooting and preliminary testing.
- Make changes to the hardware and software as
needed.
- Perform testing as required by specifications
and regulatory agencies.
- Prepare documentation of Production
- Production
- Select vendor or vendors for production.
KinTech works with a number of vendors for production build. There
is no need to worry because we will be helping you with this phase of
the process as well.
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Configuration
Management
KinTech maintains drafting logs for all drawings by drawing size, customer,
and date generated. An Engineering Change Notice (ECN) is generated for
externally released drawings when changes occur. The ECN describes the
change, the effectively of the change and the new revision letter. KinTech Manufacturing, Inc. may also use the customers
own configuration management system as directed by the customer.
Design work begins with a specification. Using project management
tools such as Microsoft Project, a schedule is generated and milestones are
tracked. Engineering design reviews are scheduled according to the
customer’s requirements.
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Outsourcing
For projects that include items outside KinTech’s
capabilities such as the design of a tool for injection molding, KinTech may
outsource that part of the design to another engineer or company.
Likewise, when building prototypes, KinTech will purchase parts and
materials from established vendors. KinTech may use customer
purchasing department if required to do so by the customer. |
KinTech
Manufacturing, Inc, specializes in designing with Microchip products. Visit
the Microchip Technology website for more information by
clicking here.