What is the Product Development Service?
If you're looking to take an idea and turn it into a reality, this is the perfect place to come. As a sole consultant I act as your personal design engineer, collaborating with other developers such as electronics engineers to take your product from an idea, through to a manufactured product, whatever it involves.
Whereas other services are stand-alone, individual services, the product development package integrates all of my expertise into a more natural yet still structured development timeline. With the standalone services, DFM work comes towards the end of a product design journey. When doing product development with me, however, DFM considerations are integrated throughout initial design work to prevent insurmountable issues or heavy compromises when it comes to making the product a reality. Equally, product validation will be continuous throughout the product development meaning confidence is built continuously and tweaks can be made before committing to a rigorous validation plan.
Product development is highly collaborative and I work together with you throughout the process, explaining technical aspects of development whilst ensuring that you are heard throughout all the important product decisions. As a sole consultant, my focus will be entirely with you and provide a more personal service.
Although product development is fluid, having a structure is crucial to avoid endless reactive iteration. Generally I like to split a timeline into different phases: Exploration Phase, Detail design phase, Validation Phase and Preparation for Manufacture phase. If appropriate, a post-production phase also. Each phase is independently scoped with review points on how to proceed throughout and a hard decision point at the end.
Exploration Phase
Defining requirement and a specification, exploring potential solutions, evaluating design concepts, researching and validating technology, rapid prototyping and resulting in nailing down a design direction.
Detail Design Phase
Part and sub-assembly design, designing and prototyping a working product. An iterative process- design, build, test and repeat, integrated validation and DFM resulting in nailing a working and visual prototype.
Validation Phase
Rigorous testing and simulation, design iteration and tweaks, part optimisation.
Preparation for Manufacture Phase
DFM tweaks for specific supplier, creating production drawing packs, supplier liaison and engagement, optimising part and assembly efficiency, pilot production runs and tooling tweaks culminating in first-off products in your first production run
Post-production Phase
Support through production, any design tweaks and tooling tweaks for second production run.
To find out more about how it works, get in touch with an initial call. I'd love to hear about your ideas and, as always, I'm happy to sign an NDA to ensure your ideas are kept safe.
What Does Product Development Involve?
Cost and Timeline
I like to be transparent about the work I do for accountability and for building great relationships with partners. Get in touch and I'd love to have a chat about timeline and pricing quotations for your specific product. I quote by estimating a timeline of engineering hours needed for the service and apply an hourly rate. For product development, since it is a long process and can take years for some highly complex products, I split it into phases, with each phase scoped and quoted separately. To give an idea of the costs involved here are some rough prices and timelines based on varying complexity and demand of the products:
Exploration Phase
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4 - 20 weeks
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~£6,000 - £30,000
Detail Design Phase
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7 - 40 Weeks
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~£10,500 - £60,000
Validation Phase
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2 - 10 Weeks
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~£3,000 - £15,000
Preparation for Manufacture Phase
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4 - 20 Weeks
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~£6,000 - £30,000
Note: During the Development process, there can be some downtime, the timeline given is based on weeks of engineering work to be done, not a timeline for taking a product from idea to mass production .
Services Timeline
Below is a typical timeline of where each stand-alone service typically falls in the product development process. If you choose to go through the whole product development process with me, the services are far more integrated and iterative meaning that design verification and design for manufacturing considerations are baked into the detailed design and prototyping phases.
This reduces duplicated work in scope overlap and ensures smooth knowledge transfer throughout the process as well as a more natural, although still structured, development process.
Click on the buttons below to explore the Product Development service and find out more about how it works. Alternatively, if you know you need a specific stand-alone service, click the individual service buttons below to find out more
(All Services Integrated)