by Maury Fredricks | May 4, 2022 | Automotive Design, Company Insights, Product Design, Themed Entertainment Design
Project Management insights…
We apply phased methodologies with milestone reviews to develop projects from research and ideation phase, into feasibility and through concept development. In many instances, our concepts are handed off to an internal Client team or supplier to further develop production release deliverables. The overall project timeline and costs can be compressed when the concept deliverables are robust, accurate and developed with production constraints in mind.
As many companies and technologies work to develop less siloed approaches to design and development the traditional phased approach still leaves much to be desired. We have focused our time and resources to develop a design team focused on bridging these silos to digest the key information from one phase and get a jump start on applying it in a fashion that is digestible to the next phase or team.
The ongoing pandemic has forced companies to reduce headcount to contain fixed costs. In addition, there has been a widely reported exodus of experienced talent entering early retirement. These two conditions have resulted in a significant talent exodus from core teams at a time when smart and seasoned project management is needed to develop innovative solutions.
To compound the challenges, inflation is eroding the buying power of corporations and increased competition demands reduced costs to develop products and services. We are, indeed, living in interesting times!
During a recent project review, we sparked a discussion about different ways to improve team performance. An initial comment led to an impromptu workshop about our role with Clients and different ways to improve team performance. We work as an extension of the Client design and engineering team, and we are all accountable for our deliverables. We win only when our clients win.
We identified several key features of a successful project that should be applied to all innovation initiatives with creative and technical teams. Here we go…
Take the time to write a well-defined project brief…
Work diligently with your cross-functional team to construct a clearly written design, engineering, or project brief. This key document will guide the team through the twisting journey traveled to take an idea through feasibility and proof of concept and physical property development.
Our experience with leading companies in diverse industries has shown that most teams rush through the design brief to start moving on the project. This is especially true of lean teams working with reduced headcount and erosion of experienced management.
Teams get stressed when unrealistic budgets and deadlines are shared with little planning or rationale for the demands. This leads to attrition and ultimately the challenges of recruiting new talent in a hyper competitive landscape.
We provide a guide on how to develop a well-defined project brief on our website. This can be found here: Fredricks Design Step by Step Guide to Building a Realistic RFP
Plan the work and work the plan…
After all members of the team have provided input to the brief and approved the document, an equal amount of energy and focus should be dedicated to the plan for key phases of the project.
In many cases, the early phases of the project are compressed to reflect a short timeline for ideation, feasibility, and concept development to make room for additional time and capital to complete production engineering and tooling.
It is our belief that if sufficient time is planned for the early phase of any project, the investment will be returned in later phases via reduced iterations, leaner design and an enhanced end-user experience. A lack of well-informed planning in early stages of development begins an uphill battle that leads to increased iterations due to unexpected feedback from production and engineering teams. This effect snowballs throughout the program forcing delays in timing and headaches for all parties involved.
Team growth and flexibility…
CEOs and leadership teams are now beginning to consider options for growth. Do we recruit and hire for our core team, engage with external resources, or pursue a hybrid model blending incremental growth to the internal team while working with flexible resources?
We have found success through turbulent times in the hybrid model. Our core design and engineering team is lean, and we engage with proven, flexible resources to scale up for sold projects.
We have also forged a strong partnership with Prefix Companies to offer turn-key solutions from sketch through manufacturing, assembly test and installation of vehicles, rides, animated props, and furniture. This flexible offering provides our clients with a wide range of services scaled to the unique requirements of each project. We are liberated to identify the best materials, processes, and methodologies for each project.
We welcome your comments on this article. Please visit us at www.fredricks.com and download any of our content offers. We look forward to working together when the time is right!
Best wishes for future success on all of your projects!
Maury Fredricks
Mobile +1 616-402-2300
maury.fredricks@fredricks.com
by Maury Fredricks | May 4, 2022 | Automotive Design, Company Insights, Events, Fredricks Design Review
CES 2023 is just 7 months away…
The show in Las Vegas is only seven months away! Now is not the time to relax on projects for CES 2023!
We are ready to help solve your problems!
Our team is ready to help on your projects, of any scale and complexity.
We offer flexible and scalable design, engineering and build solutions for advanced vehicles, cockpits, seating and interior systems.
We have deep and diverse experience.
Demonstrators, vehicle development, interior systems, seating, cargo systems, lighting and mirrors
Exhibit consulting, kiosks, displays and tech review support solutions
Please visit us at fredricks.com or call Maury Fredricks at 616-402.2300 to get the ball rolling…Thanks for our past and future work with your team! Best wishes for a successful year and fantastic show!
All images provided by Adient Studio with permission for our use. Fredricks Design, Inc.
#CES2023 #design #engineering #manufacturing #innovation #solutions
by Maury Fredricks | Apr 19, 2022 | Automotive Design, Company Insights, Fredricks Design Review, Furniture Design, Product Design, Themed Entertainment Design
Work as a collaborative team to reduce iterations and improve project flow.
Our work with marketing, design and engineering teams over the past several decades has been an interesting and challenging journey. We have been lucky in our work with diverse teams in different industries.
There are common challenges and goals for all teams working on concepts for innovative products and services. Whatever business you are in, there are a few fundamentals for application in the planning and execution of your projects.
The Design Brief is the project roadmap.
Every project begins with a design brief including constraints on time, budget, and performance metrics. These guidelines, of course, are established after an agreement is reached on the design or project brief with key stakeholders. The problem statement, resources, assignments and measurable goals must be included in the brief. A well-written brief will help guide the team from research through production release and market launch.
by Maury Fredricks | Dec 6, 2021 | Company Insights, Events, Product Design
Northwestern University Design Thinking Communication Fall Term 2021
I traveled to Northwestern University in Evanston on Saturday, December 4, 2021 to attend the final team presentations for a sponsored project. The skies were clear with minimal traffic as I made my way “around the horn” of Lake Michigan and northbound through Chicago on Lake Shore Drive. The conditions were ideal for my homecoming to campus following almost two years of hybrid and/or remote collaboration resultant from the pandemic.
We embarked on the sponsored project in August 2021 with a ten-week timeline for the three teams to develop solutions to this problem statement…
Project Description
K-6 Study at Home Solutions
Young students are challenged with study at home and organization of homework, electronics, and artwork supplies. Quick packing, unpacking and organization of a wide range of materials and electronics is repetitive and wastes time and energy. Research, sketch, mockup and develop a concept including a working prototype for a compact, flexible, modular storage solution that provides organization, power charging and ease of use.
Existing Solutions
We developed Freddy Furniture USA – Kids Study from Home Desks as a flexible desking solution engineered to ergonomic standards for K-6 students.
Conor Fredricks, our lead industrial designer and I presented an overview of the problem statement and a deck illustrating our process and methodologies to help guide end-user interviews, research and ideation over the first few weeks of the class. Our interaction with the teams and professors Ignatius Aloysuis and Tirdad Kiamanesh was via Zoom and a simple camera setup in the classroom at Northwestern. Although it was not an ideal setup, we made it work and the teams launched into the front-end exploratory work to develop divergent ideas.
Our second design review was hosted during week 6 of the term. We were blown away with the diversity of ideas presented by the three teams and the body of work developed. The teams were made up of freshman engineering students and most of the team members had never worked together on projects. We provided feedback to the teams and answered a few questions. From there, the teams went back to work to complete the deliverables for final presentations on December 4, 2021.
Final Presentations
I was absolutely blown away by the presentations and deliverables developed by our teams. The deliverables included prototypes,
posters, a written final report and, most importantly, stand up presentations. The skills and team cooperation will go forward with all of our students for future application in educational, professional and personal endeavors.
As I drove south towards Chicago and home, I reflected on my two wonderful years at the Ford Building, my classmates, Green Team members and our excellent professors. I was lucky to attend Northwestern and now, humbled and honored to teach at McCormick.
There has been a lot written lately about the “great resignation” underway across most industries. My brief visit to Northwestern University left me feeling positive about the future of innovation and higher education in America. We are a country of innovators and “can do” entrepreneurs. Innovation is a team- based activity and creativity is alive and doing well in Evanston, Illinois! Go Northwestern and Go USA!
Investment in our students and their education
Fredricks Design will continue our mission to help guide young design and engineering talent both in and out of the classroom. These sponsored or “live” projects bring a level of real-world experience that offers insights on how products are developed in the real world. This experience is extremely valuable in molding students into successful designer and engineers in the next phase of their careers and Fredricks is more than happy to do our part.
Please contact us for additional information and case studies. We would love a chance to collaborate with your team!
by Maury Fredricks | Dec 18, 2020 | Company Insights, Furniture Design, Product Design
2020 has been a year of challenges, opportunities and many lessons learned.
This past year will stand as one of the most challenging years in memory. Lives have been disrupted, families have suffered staggering emotional and economic devastation, and we have lost almost a full year of formative education for our young students. Food lines stretch far into the distance and the lines for COVID testing and now, vaccinations are almost as long. Wow, what a tough year!
Are we working on the right problems?
Very early on during the first Michigan work from home phase, our team met virtually to openly discuss economic conditions and an almost continuous stream of announcements for furloughs and layoffs with our Clients. These announcements impacted us deeply, since many of the people affected were longtime friends and trusted Clients. It was a helpless feeling and we found ourselves seeking things to work on that might help solve everyday problems in our “new normal”. Little did we realize at the time that the problems would continue to grow in complexity and impact to our business and families.
We set up brainstorming workshops to explore different problems that we could help solve. The world did not need another mask company (at least at the time) and we did not know much about the design of protective equipment or ventilators. Our team quickly developed a portfolio of different ideas for a number of applications and environments. Being designers and engineers, we launched into sketching and ideation before we caught ourselves and filtered our priorities down to a few products. A little business discipline is always helpful with creative and technical teams!
We are a family business in our second generation of leadership and management. We are also grandparents of healthy granddaughters, with the two oldest kids now in kindergarten and the first grade. We are blessed. Even with our resources, we watched our grand kids and their parents struggle with home schooling, limited social interaction with classmates and the daily stream of Zoom classes. All of this while working at tables and sitting on chairs designed for adults. There was clutter everywhere and the daily grind was exhausting.
Let’s do it for the kids!
We decided to research kids desks and chairs to see what was out there in the marketplace. Most of the products were cheaply made offshore with little consideration for durability, ergonomic fit or workmanship. At the other end of the spectrum, we found high-end desks and limited seating options. Our team ran the opportunity through our filter to determine the business opportunity to sell our products at scale.
Our next step was to write a detailed design brief including these key guidelines for development, marketing and distribution of the products:
- Validation of the problem statement and gather voice of the customer via workshops and interviews. Workshops were not easy to conduct during a pandemic, but we got it done safely.
- Develop desks and seating solutions that will grow with your children and provide many years of durable use to improve home study and organization of study and art supplies
- Design and build in Michigan and or the USA with direct-to-consumer distribution to maintain reasonable pricing.
- Apply lean thinking to minimize the number of components and leverage modularity for different applications
- Specify high quality earth friendly materials and minimize waste
- Develop business models and fair pricing for our products
- Reduce the number of suppliers to one for our products, whenever possible
Our team workflow resulted in compressed timelines…
Applying our development process, we moved quickly from research, sketches and ideation, mockups and prototypes into concept development and production launch. Our cross-functional team concurrently worked on marketing, design and engineering and supply chain interaction to compress our timeline to about 90 days from research to product in a box ready for distribution though our website This included three rounds of prototypes, workshops, patent work and branding. This compressed timing was made possible through our direct interaction with parents, kids and educators. We were able to make informed decisions on the fly and translate our findings to our turn-key local supplier.
Our work product and solutions…
Out of our countless brainstorming sessions, concepts and in-home observational research Freddy Furniture USA was born. Our desk systems are made to deliver a focused work environment that is designed specifically for children aged K-6. The height adjustable work surfaces help deliver an ergonomically correct workspace that helps keep kids stay engaged for longer periods of time. In our early observations we saw kids drawn to early marker board concepts, so we packaged as many as we could fit into our desk systems. This includes two reversible work surfaces that are removable so your child can bring them wherever they want to go. We kept construction as simple as possible to allow for quick assembly and robust products flat packed for shipping. It has truly been a pleasure to see these products help kids drained by the day-to-day strain of our current situation and we want to share this experience with as many people as possible. Our kids deserve it.
Our first products are only the beginning…
All of this work has been completed with a focus on young students, their parents and caregivers. We invested in this problem and accelerated the development of our first products with a goal of improving home study. If all goes to plan, we will continue to work on additional kids’ products for study, artwork, and play. Please visit us at freddyfurnitureUSA.com to learn more about our products. Thanks for your interest! Read the original article on our LinkedIn page here.
by Maury Fredricks | Jul 1, 2020 | Company Insights, Events, Themed Entertainment Design
Field notes from Orlando November 2019…
My travels last year included numerous trips to Orlando for client visits and a few days at IAAPA, the annual themed attraction trade show. Little did I know that my travels in 2020 would be eliminated by a global pandemic. Looking back on November 2019, it seemed like a simpler, easier time…
I attended a presentation by George Walker, Creative Director with Universal Creative. George launched into his presentation with a story about his youth and the theme park he built in his backyard in upstate New York. He followed his dreams and has worked on creative projects around the world and back to join the growing and innovative Universal Team based in Orlando.
George’s message resonated with me before the pandemic, through the shelter at home period, and even more so now as I think about the future for our business and the challenges every company faces…we are living in a dramatically changed landscape. A few of his key points are paraphrased below:
Key Points from George Walker at IAAPA 2019
Achieve Authentic Reality
A theme park is a story place. Themed entertainment is built on emotion and emotion comes from experience.
An experience is an event or occurrence that leaves an impression.
“When experience is the commodity, authenticity is the currency.” Authenticity is key.
These simple principles can be applied to any business, product, service delivery, or organization. Now, more than ever, we are all seeking authenticity in our personal and professional relationships. There is now no tolerance for bullshit or shoddy delivery on brand promise.
We all need to take a reality check on what our client’s problems are and how we will deliver a differentiated and memorable experience on every engagement. It is an opportunity to improve ourselves, our teams, and our products and services.
Tell Your Story From the Heart
Our work with leading entertainment companies has sharpened our storytelling skills. We’ve been really lucky to participate in creative reviews with some of the world’s best talent and we have been inspired to up our game by their work.
The best stories are delivered with passion from the heart using simple language and high impact, clean images.
All companies and organizations are now confronted with the reality that budgets are tight and talent will be stretched thin while working in different ways. It seems like a great time for clear thinking and straight talk. We are all uncertain, a little on edge, and curious about what the future will look like as the economy begins to ramp up.
Deliver an Excellent, Emotional Experience
There is an old saying that “we are only as good as our last project”. Brand promises are kept or broken through every client touchpoint and relationships are built over time.
Our experience with cross-functional teams has proven that straight talk communication is essential in building trust. Thanks to our clients and diverse project experience, we have developed clear and simple project management tools to track progress on creative technical and commercial issues. Weekly updates are shared with key stakeholders to ensure we are tracking to plan with no surprises along the way.
In many instances, we act as a designated or de-facto catalyst with the creative studio and engineering team to help keep everyone aligned on the established storyline and moving towards our project deliverables and deadlines. Authenticity and delivery on our promises have been a big factor in our success over the past few decades.
The overall experience with any firm, product, or service is a sum-total of touchpoints and the end deliverables.
Back to the simpler and easier time of November 2019…little did I realize that so much of what George Walker shared would be applicable as we step into our new and weird landscape! Relationships, trust, and follow-through on our commitments will be even more important as we fire up the economic engines and get back to work.
Thank you for sharing George — we look forward to working together when the time is right!
Maury Fredricks
