The Virt is a cutting-edge two-way camera IoT device that delivers a new era of connectivity for darts players and fans alike.
In the fast-paced world of electronics manufacturing, the time it takes to get your product market ready can be critical to its success. Speed and timing are not just an advantage, they are imperative. Delays can result in missed opportunities, increased costs, and loss of a competitive edge.
Despite the need for speed, the complexities of volume production cannot be ignored. Everything from designing a marketable product, procuring materials and components, and setting up production lines, calls for multiple stakeholders and intricate planning.
We look at some of the best practices that are necessary to ensure a product is market ready.
Design for manufacture (DFM) focuses on the ease of manufacturing through efficient design and careful part selection - with an end goal of making the product better at a lower cost. During the design process, components and processes are carefully chosen to minimise the complexity of volume production and optimise the product for easy and efficient manufacture.
The key principles that should be considered during DFM are:
Design: Evaluate how well the design conforms to the manufacturing process.
Materials: Less is more. The product needs to perform correctly, without the use of excessive materials and components.
Process: Avoid highly specialised processes if they are not required and don’t add value to the final product. Look at the best process to suit your budget and volume requirements.
Environment: Consider the real-world environment that your product will need to operate in i.e. extreme heat/cold, changing weather conditions.
Design for assembly (DFA) involves designing products with ease of assembly in mind. The goal is to minimise the number of parts, the amount of time it takes to assemble the product and the cost of the assembly.
Employing DFA principles during design can:
All electronic products placed on the market are legally required to carry a mark that states the product has been inspected and meets the required safety and other standards.
Achieving regulatory compliance requires a comprehensive understanding of the intricate and ever evolving standards across many directives. Often, having the right knowledge and tools to navigate the complexity of product compliance can be challenging but is a critical part of the process and vital to the success of your product.
The directives and standards that the product might be required to meet should be considered at the very start of the project. A robust compliance strategy allows effective design decisions to be made and reduces the risk of any ‘surprises’ during formal testing, speeding uptime to market.
Once the product has been finalised and the relevant standards applied, what next? There are several things that should be considered before launching a product to market.
Packaging: Consider the products journey through the supply chain; it’s size and shape. Packaging should allow your product to arrive in pristine condition.
User manual: Does the product need a user manual? What should be included? Paper copy or digital?
Serialisation: Applying a unique serial number means a product can be tracked through every step of the supply chain and gives better control over inventory. Returns can be tracked and failures investigated in a more meaningful way.
Labelling: What is required legally and how is that information displayed and where?
Warranty: What happens if the product or a piece of it fails or breaks? How can you mitigate this through testing and how do you handle returns?
Spares: What happens if the product or a piece of it fails or breaks? Can spare parts be provided?
Quality: Ensuring traceability and having everything documented and controlled.
When it comes to choosing a manufacturing partner, it’s important to select an organisation that has the capability, capacity, and expertise to streamline all these elements and get your product market ready as swiftly as possible.
Whatever stage of the process you’re in, our team have the skills and experience to evaluate what you’ve got, develop a plan, and help you get to where you want to be.
If you’ve got a project you’d like to discuss, book a discovery meeting with our experts.
The Virt is a cutting-edge two-way camera IoT device that delivers a new era of connectivity for darts players and fans alike.
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