Color So Hard: The Dos and Don’ts of Color Matching!
Folks, John Doe, member of the ground breaking punk band X, released a superb solo album in 1995, “Kissing So Hard”. By that time, Mr. Doe had evolved into a country-punk artist and the sixth track “Kissing (So Hard)” proved that he was as much poet as musician. What does all this got to do […]
Applying the Brakes to Early Stage Companies & Designs
Folks, We were recently approached by an early stage medical device company. Without revealing any product details, they’ve designed a specialized bandage that’s used to control traumatic bleeding. The company is led by two physicians and a finance professional. The founders have hacked several bandages and asked for our assistance in making product models to […]
How NPI Changed in 2021
Folks, It was quite a year… Again. Twelve months ago, we were all looking forward to a return to some form of normalcy. At the start of the new year, normalcy appears to be whatever we’re all doing to keep pushing forward. Several trends in new product sourcing and manufacturing emerged or were reinforced last […]
Does This Look Easy to You?
Folks, Eighty-two week lead times for some discrete components, raw material shortages and cost increases, domestic ground freight charges that have doubled in the last six months, a late winter storm in Texas that shutdown the chemical feed stock & polymer industries and “Help Wanted” signs everywhere. We’ve been at this a long time and […]
Three Important New Product Industrialization Guardrails
Folks, Back in the Precambrian era, I was a young engineer working for GE Plastics’ Electromaterials division. Communication has come a long way since then. We sent Telexes and faxes, early versions of email were emerging, our version of Instagram was a projector slide show at Thanksgiving and we met in person all the time. […]
The Design-Reality Disequilibrium
Folks, This month’s newsletter focuses on the importance of defining your entire supply chain when designing and launching a new product. If you want to get off on the right foot and succeed at scaling to volume, it’s critically important to pin down all of the “CTF” (critical to function) components, materials and parts before […]
Different Isn’t Necessarily Better
“It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” Mark Twain Folks, We see many new product concepts every month. For the past nine months, they’ve been coming in a torrent. This happened before… Following the financial crisis of 2008, new businesses and […]
New Product Development: A Roadmap for Managing Suppliers
Folks, Happy New Year to all! I’m expecting that 2021 will be a better year for all of us. Stepping off on the right foot, my colleagues have taken the keys away from blog car this month and Jason Marietta our Engineering Director in Arizona is penning this installment. I’m sure that you’ll enjoy his […]
A Road Map To Mitigate Your Supply Chain Risk in China
Expanding and Transforming Your Sources of Supply Folks, If you’re an ODM, OEM, manufacturer or distributor who’s purchasing tangible products, you’re in China. We’re in China too. At this point, we all are. Purchasing from suppliers in China was once a bold move, a roll of the dice. Over the past ten years, it has […]
New Product Industrialization – Ten Ways That We Add Value
Folks, I hope that you all enjoyed the summer season and are thriving during the early fall. We’ve been busy with our work and are extremely thankful for that. We serve many different product segments, which makes our business more resilient. We’re now working on two new dental projects, one used in hospital settings and […]