This post is part 4- What Engineers Do During The Develop Phase, of the ‘Role of an Engineer’ series.
If you missed parts 1- Welcome To The Role Of An Engineer Series, 2- What Engineers Do During The Define Phase or 3- What Engineers Do During The Design Phase you definitely should read them first since these processes build on one another.
This series is based on my experience as an engineer. Although the New Product Development Process is used in many industries, the exact tasks may vary
The five phases of the New Product Development (NPD) Process include:
- Define
- Design
- Develop
- Test
- Launch
Develop Phase
As an engineer, after the design is chosen in the Design phase you hand it over to manufacturing and your job is done right?
No, you still have a lot of work to do! This is probably a surprise since school leads you to believe an engineer’s job involves only designing product. So much more goes into launching the product than just the upfront prototyping phases.
Engineers work closely with manufacturing in the Develop phase. The objective is to ensure the prototype can be manufactured, repeatably, on a large scale. An engineer is responsible for these tasks and more, during the Develop phase of the NPD Process.
The key tasks an engineer is responsible for during the Develop phase include:
- Creating drawings for the prototypes you are moving forward with from the Design phase.
- Working with manufacturing early in the project to ensure you are moving forward with a design that can be manufactured.
- Choosing a vendor that is capable of providing a component that meets the drawing requirements and is a good fit for the business.
- Testing prototypes produced by the manufacturing line.
- Documenting how all prototypes are built and recording the data for the testing completed.
In my experience the Develop phase usually takes the longest. The team selects one or two of the most viable designs. Then, proceeds to develop them further. Drawings for the designs are created.
The engineers gather more feedback from the customer on the prototypes. It is very important to gather customer feedback during every phase. This ensures the project is progressing with a design that the end user wants to use.
Vendor Selection
Vendor selection for all of the new components takes place during this phase. This process determines who will be supplying each of the components for the product. Engineering should work closely with quality, manufacturing, and supply chain to determine vendors. These stake holders usually have different priorities when it comes to vendors. That is why it is important to involve everyone early in choosing a vendor.
Supply chain should have a list of preferred vendors. These vendors have already passed the company’s internal quality requirements. The vendors will likely give better pricing because they have an existing relationship with the company. This sounds like it should be a straight forward process. However, it usually is not, especially if engineering wants to use a new vendor.
Vendor Selection Challenges
When I was working on a project, there was only one vendor that could produce a complex component for us repeatedly. Supply chain did not like this because this vendor was not on their preferred vendor list.
They really wanted us to use a much larger company that we had a relationship with. Supply Chain delayed the project a few months by having us continue trying to work with their preferred vendor. This was frustrating. Especially since we already had a vendor producing parts that met the drawing requirements.
The team decided we should go with the original vendor that was meeting the drawing. This was after a few months and failed attempts of working with the preferred vendor. Everyone agreed that after the product launched, we would go back to the preferred vendor Supply Chain wanted. Then, we could take more time to try to get them to produce the component.
As an engineer, it was aggravating to continue working with a vendor to produce a component that was already being made within the specification by another vendor. I had a lot of other work to do and this did not seem like it should have been the priority.
This is an example of why understanding the business side is helpful. Many decisions made along the way are more about the business. It is not as straight forward as just finding a vendor that can meet your drawing. So much more goes into vendor selection.
Manufacturing Prototypes
Engineering will work with manufacturing to transfer the prototyping line to production, if the prototypes were being made by engineering.
This phase takes a lot of iterations as the manufacturing line is being built or modified. The manufacturing site produces many prototypes for engineering to evaluate. This ensures the product being produced meets the drawings and product specifications.
The engineer documents the process used each time the manufacturing line produces a new build. Engineering documents all of the testing and results done on the parts in test reports as well. Documentation is very important to keep track of all the different iterations and process inputs. This way, you will know exactly what settings everything was run at. Then, it will be easy to reproduce the process that gave you the best results.
Manufacturing will continue to modify the line until the prototypes meet the specifications. Timing usually depends on how different the processes needed to make the new design are from the current manufacturing technologies available. It is more favorable if the new and old processes are similar to decrease the risk. The more new processes that need to be created, the more time it will take, and riskier the project becomes.
Engineering creates final drawings once there is a design that can be manufactured and meets requirements. The engineer writes the build and test protocol. This details how the product will be built and what testing it will go through in the Test phase.
All materials and components are ordered to the final drawings. These are sent to the manufacturing site for the final prototype builds.
Develop Phase Case Study
The Coolest Cooler had the highest funded Kickstarter campaign in 2014. It raised $13 million from 60,000 customers. This cooler had all of the bells and whistles including a bottle opener, blender, USB charger, bluetooth speaker, and a LED light. It was meant to be an all-in-one solution for outdoor activities including camping, beach parties, and barbecues.
While this sounds like a great idea and very convenient for people, the Coolest Cooler missed its launch date. The Kickstarter funders still had not received a cooler, two years after the promised launch date!
So what caused all of the delays? The Develop phase. This cooler was challenging to manufacture and had supply chain problems. These issues led to a cost of $235, just to manufacture and ship it.
The company attempted to launch and sell it on Amazon for $499! Are you going to buy a cooler for $499? I know I am not. It is probably cheaper to buy a cooler and all of the components separate than the cost of one Coolest Cooler.
Importance Of The Develop Phase
The downfall of the Coolest Cooler illustrates the importance of the Develop phase. You can have the best idea, that is really meeting a consumer need. However, if you cannot manufacture the product for a reasonable price, you will not be able to sell it.
This is why it is so crucial for manufacturing to be involved in the project from the start. They can advise engineering during the Design phase on what technologies they have available. Manufacturing can also voice concerns they may have early on. When engineers evaluate designs, manufacturability should always be one of the criteria they use.
Supply chain logistics can also cause production costs to rise and make it challenging to turn a profit. This is why the vendor selection process is very important. As an engineer, you can choose vendors that are both good for the business and product. You can do this by having all of the functions involved in the decision making.
Bottom line is you can have the best design, but if it cannot be manufactured, it will not matter. It will follow a fate similar to the Coolest Cooler.
Summary
To summarize, the engineer’s role in the Develop phase includes:
- Creating drawings for the prototypes you are moving forward with from the Design phase.
- Working with manufacturing early in the project to ensure you are moving forward with a design that can be manufactured.
- Choosing a vendor that is capable of providing a component that meets the drawing requirements and also is a good fit for the business.
- Testing prototypes produced by the manufacturing line.
- Documenting how all prototypes are built and recording the data for the testing completed.
Now you understand the importance of manufacturing and documentation. The earlier manufacturing is involved in the project, the easier the Develop phase will be. This is because you will already know you have a design that can be manufactured.
Documentation is very crucial. It allows you to keep track of how the design was manufactured and how it performed when tested. Then, when a prototype run meets the product specification requirements, you will know how it was manufactured.
Vendor selection is not as easy as selecting a vendor that can meet the component drawing. All key stakeholders should be involved in the vendor selection process. This ensures you are selecting a vendor that is good for the product and business.
Want to know what happens next after you can produce prototypes that consistently meet the specifications? Find out more by reading the next post of the series, the Test phase.