Manufacturing Results, Does Anyone Have a Better Bad Idea?
In the corner of this black heart. A full deck of wild cards. Tell me, are you scared to make a bet? Are you in or are you out? With all the sins I’m thinking about. Or do you have a better bad idea? [‘Better Bad Idea’, recorded by Sunny Sweeny, Americana artist, 2017.] Following […]
Whipsawed!
“Hope for the best, expect the worst. Some drink champagne, some die of thirst. No way of knowing which way it’s going. Hope for the best, expect the worst!” Who knew that Mel Brooks, the esteemed actor, comedian, filmmaker and songwriter, has a side business advising clients on manufacturing strategy and international trade? But not […]
The Three Moments of Truth of NPD
Folks, When I was doing new product development in the corporate world, my colleagues and I had abundant resources to play with. This included “IPOs” or International Procurement Offices, which were in the world’s manufacturing centers. We designed a new product in Illinois and then handed it off to the IPO team in Hong Kong, […]
Five Points that Bridge the Gap Between 3D Printing and a Production Ready Design
Folks, At EastBridge, our engineers rely on our 3D printers to produce models and early-stage prototypes for emerging new products. The ability to quickly spin out parts with an ever-growing range of resins and metals allows us to quickly iterate and develop proof of concept. Not having to commit to diecasting or injection molding tooling […]
3,000 Factories and Counting…
Folks, I became an engineer because I like building things, specifically, physical products. In my work at EastBridge, I have the privilege to influence and guide the development and manufacturing of countless new cool products. I have the best job in the world, at least for me! When I was a senior process engineer (a […]
The Chaos Wrought by Expertise
Folks, Every industrialization project that we’ve worked on includes a corps of service providers. The disciplines represented can include industrial design, branding, engineering, regulatory, legal, packaging, manufacturing, laboratory testing services, logistics and many others. The specialized (and at times uncommon) knowledge represented by these professionals is foundational to the success of the project and product. […]
Hard to Build (and sometimes) Easy to Break
Folks, Yes, I know – it’s been a while since our last post. The last six months have been extraordinarily busy at EastBridge. I’m back on track now to send out monthly updates. The Cowboy Junkies are a difficult to classify alt country band from Ontario, Canada. They’ve been making beautiful and evocative music since […]
Country of Origin Marking: “Designed In” isn’t “Made In”.
Folks, It’s become sort of voguish to mark consumer product packaging with descriptions such as “Proudly Designed in Silicon Valley” and “Thoughtfully Assembled in the USA”. While the written words may be (technically) true, they’re no substitute for properly listing the Country of Origin (“COO”) on the product and/or package. Mess up on this and […]
New Product Industrialization and the Zone of Proximal Development
Folks, My wife is a special education teacher for primary school kids, and her job is extraordinarily more difficult than anything you or I do. We were recently at one of her work social events and I overheard something about The Zone of Proximal Development. I learned that this is Lev Vygotsky’s theory of learning […]
Methods & Materials: The Foundation of New Product Development
Folks, When I was a young engineer, my first position was in the printed circuit board industry. [And thank you to the Emello family for giving me my start! Back then, I didn’t appreciate the enduring value of having to do every job in the plant. IThat job gave me an “Industrial PhD” that continues […]