How Collaborative Product Design Boosts Manufacturing Profitability

How Collaborative Product Design Boosts Manufacturing Profitability

by | Apr 22, 2019 | Product Design

Manufacturing companies frequently run into roadblocks when developing new products. It’s never easy to create something that’s brand new and totally innovative, no matter if you are a mid-sized company just breaking into the industry or a well-established manufacturer with years of successful product development behind you. Open innovation and collaborative product design are key ways to help your company break through these roadblocks and develop a product that’s both innovative and profitable.

For many, the idea of collaborative product design is an unknown. Inviting another team to help develop your project is a daunting thought for many, but when you actively incorporate another team of experts, you open your product up to a variety of new perspectives that help differentiate and make your product better than what’s already on the market. Innovative networking, especially with reputable, experienced product design and engineering firms, will help you produce better ideas. And better ideas mean better products and better profits.

Let’s take a look at a few of the ways that collaborating with a product design and engineering firm can boost your manufacturing profitability:

Leverage Multidisciplinary Expertise

While your team has highly-specific, relevant experience within your company and industry, a design and engineering partner will have more diverse experience in a variety of industries. The product differentiation that comes from this diverse experience is what will help set your product and your company apart as a leader in your market.

For example, the Fredricks Design team regularly partners with clients developing vehicles, seating, consumer products, and healthcare solutions. In any project we take on, we’re able to apply our experience in each of those industries to design and engineer a product that’s both innovative and functional. Collaborating with a product design and engineering firm offers your team an additional range of expertise that can be applied to develop a unique, innovative, and profitable product.

Expand Internal Capabilities Without Hiring New Team Members

New product development is a complex endeavor. Most often, companies turn to either a product development partner who can complete the feasibility process and who has the capacity to engineer and build products, or they hire on a new engineer for a short period of time to do the same work. We dive extensively into this choice in our article New Product Development Contractor Vs. Outsourced Development Team, but you might consider that partnering with a product design and engineering firm can expand your internal capabilities quickly and effectively, without the hassle of hiring a new, temporary team member.

When you partner with an experienced design and engineering studio, there’s no need for training or catching engineers up to speed. Rather, this collaborative approach offers all of the creative and design capabilities you need, while keeping your product moving swiftly to market without interruptions or delays.

Control Project Costs

Great product design conserves budget. A design and engineering studio understands this and works with their clients and partners during every product phase to develop innovative designs that meet budget constraints. When you work with a design and engineering firm, your contract will specify your budget and expense capabilities, ensuring your product development remains within those constraints. What’s more, a reputable design and engineering firm will have relationships with build sources and property fabricators and can work closely with all parties to develop and engineer a product that maximizes your company’s return on investment.

Reduce Time to Market

A key contributor to your product’s manufacturing profitability is how quickly you can move a quality product to market. Collaborating with a professional design and engineering studio offers a number of benefits that help reduce your product’s time to market. First and foremost, they’re able to apply relevant past experience to your product, which helps speed the development process along.

Additionally, you’ll have just one responsive point of contact throughout development, making it easy to communicate and make adjustments in real-time. Finally, a product design and engineering team has a deep understanding of the development process. They know how to overcome technical obstacles that could delay product introductions, and can help you address any obstacles before they become an issue, ensuring your product reaches the market on schedule.

Collaborative product design boosts manufacturing profitability by helping your company develop a new, innovative product that is differentiated from other products already on the market, that meets project cost budgets, and that moves to market swiftly. By partnering with a reputable design and engineering studio, you are able to leverage their multidisciplinary experience, expanding your team’s capabilities without the hassle of hiring temporary or contracted engineers.

If your manufacturing company is looking for assistance in developing a new, innovative product for your market, get in touch with Fredricks Design. We collaborate with manufacturing teams in a variety of industries to develop profitable products that stand out from the competition. Let us know what we can innovate for you.

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How Autonomous Vehicles are Changing the Automotive Design Game

How Autonomous Vehicles are Changing the Automotive Design Game

by | Apr 1, 2019 | Automotive Design

Autonomous vehicles are changing the automotive design game. When there’s no need for a driver’s seat, a steering wheel, or even windows to the outdoors, automotive design can be transformed. With no driver, vehicles become rolling offices, commuter spas, and even delivery bots transporting goods right to your front door. Let’s take a look at three of the ways autonomous vehicles are changing how we think about automotive design:

Designed From the Inside Out

With no need to consider a traditional driver’s seat, with high visibility or access to controls and steering, automotive design is ostensibly freed up. New, autonomous vehicles aren’t tied to traditional design concepts. Instead of designing with exterior constraints in mind, vehicles can be created in any shape or size, opening up design options to truly focus on the interior first.

Designers now have the capability to consider the user. Whether the focus is to deliver a space to relax on the way to work, hold meetings on the go, or even get work done on a morning commute, autonomous technology is now allowing designers to build vehicles from the inside out, rather than the other way around.

Designed for Moving Goods, Not People

When we think of autonomous vehicles, it’s easy to think of self-driving cars. But autonomous vehicle technology has a much broader application. Our roads are full of vehicles that transport food, packages, and other goods. Autonomous vehicle design has the potential to revolutionize the way we get groceries, the way we receive mail and packages, and so much more. There are already companies making waves in the autonomous delivery markets, and trends like these are sure to change the way we see and design transportation vehicles.

For example, delivery vehicles have the opportunity to become much smaller, as they have no need for a human driver. They need only fit the goods to be delivered, saving space on the road, and the energy it would’ve taken to power a much larger vehicle.

Shuttles, Buses, and Taxis

Before autonomous technology, transit vehicles needed to be large to maximize capacity, while minimizing the number of operators. Trams and buses could only be deployed when there was a driver to direct them. With autonomous vehicle technology, rideshare vehicles aren’t dependent on a driver. They can be deployed whenever a user requests a ride.

This opens up a wealth of design possibilities, from making vehicles smaller and more streamlined to again designing from the inside out, with the user in mind. Rideshare vehicles designed for commuters can feature tables, workspaces, and more, without the extra space that would’ve been necessary for a driver.

The future of automotive and autonomous vehicle design is exciting. From developing new ridesharing vehicles to grocery delivery applications, there is much to be discovered. Fredricks Design is at the forefront of autonomous vehicle design, and we would love to help you develop your next project. For unexpected design solutions that deliver on form and function, give us a call.

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