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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Fachliteratur
- Sprache: Englisch
PRAISE FOR PRODUCT REALIZATION: GOING FROM ONE TO A MILLION
"A must-read reference for anyone who intends to successfully build a product and bring it to market."
�Desh Deshpande, Entrepreneur & Life Member of MIT Corporation
"This book is a go-to resource for new and experienced hardware teams to help them plan for and execute a new hardware startup successfully and avoid common pitfalls. Highly recommended."
�Bill Aulet, Managing Director, The Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship & Professor of the Practice, MIT Sloan School and Author of Disciplined Entrepreneurship
"An excellent, practical guide for first time entrepreneurs building physical world products."
�Laila Partridge, Managing Director, STANLEY+Techstars Accelerator
"Product Realization picks up where so many product design books end. Here is the book that explains it all � chock full of shop-floor wisdom, fascinating stories and compelling examples."
�Steven Eppinger, Professor of Management Science and Engineering Systems, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
"Product Realization contains the critical information and roadmap hardware entrepreneurs need as they take their concepts from prototype to production."
�Ken Rother, Managing Director eLab and Visiting Lecturer of Management, Johnson Graduate School of Management, Cornell University
Product Realization: Going from One to a Million delivers a comprehensive treatment of the entire product launch process from beginning to end. Drawing upon the author's extensive first-hand experience with dozens of successful product launches, the book explores the process of bringing a design from prototype to product. It illustrates the complicated and interdisciplinary process with vignettes and examples, provides checklists and templates to help teams, and points out common challenges teams will face.
Perfect for both students, start-ups, and engineers in the field, Product Realization: Going from One to a Million will be the go-to reference for engineers seeking practical advice and concrete strategies to launch higher quality products, at the right cost and on time.
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Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
dedication-page
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Chapter 1: Introduction
1.1
Examples
1.2
Building Ten Thousand is Very Different from Building One
1.3
Product Realization is a Marathon
1.4
The Factory is Not a Giant 3D Printer
1.5
Three Rules
1.6
Why Learn about Product Realization?
1.7
Book Structure
Note
Chapter 2 Are You Ready to Start?
2.1
Is Your Concept Ready?
2.2
Is the Technology Mature Enough?
2.3
Is the Prototype Mature Enough?
2.4
Is the Product Definition Mature Enough?
2.5
Is Manufacturing Mature Enough?
2.6
Is there Enough Cash and Is there Enough Time?
2.7
How Ready is Ready?
Chapter 3: Product Realization Process
3.1
Product Development Processes
3.2
Industry Standards
3.3
The Pilot Process
Chapter 4: Project Management
4.1
Roles and Responsibilities
4.2
Critical Path
4.3
Risk Management
4.4
Managing Your Enterprise Data
Chapter 5: Specifications
5.1 Integrating with the Product Development Process
5.2 Parts of the Specification Document
5.3 Gathering Information
5.4 Managing a Specifications Document
Chapter 6: Product Definition
6.1
Types of Parts
6.2
Bill of Materials
6.3
Color, Material, and Finish (CMF)
6.4
Mechanical Drawing Package
6.5
Electronics Design Package
6.6
Packaging
Chapter 7: Pilot‐phase Quality Testing
7.1
Definition of Quality
7.2
Quality Testing
7.3
Pilot Quality Test Plan
Chapter 8: Costs and Cash Flow
8.1
Terminology
8.2
Non‐recurring Engineering Costs
8.3
Recurring Costs
8.4
Revenue and Order Fulfillment
8.5
Cash Flow
Chapter 9: Manufacturing Systems
9.1
Production System Types
9.2
Dedicated Manufacturing Facilities
9.3
Areas in a Manufacturing Facility
9.4
Lean Principles
Chapter 10: Design for Manufacturability and Design for X
10.1
Selecting Manufacturing Processes
10.2
Design for Manufacture
10.3
Design for Assembly
10.4
Design for Sustainability
10.5
Design for Maintenance
10.6
Design for Testing
10.7
Design for SKU Complexity
10.8
Eleven Basic Rules of DFX
Chapter 11: Process Design
11.1
Process Flow
11.2
Manual vs. Automation
11.3
Work Allocation to Stations
11.4
Process Plans
11.5
Standard Operating Procedures
11.6
Material Handling
Chapter 12: Tooling
12.1
Types and Their Uses
12.2
Tooling Strategy
12.3
Tooling Life‐cycle
12.4
Tooling Plan
Chapter 13: Production Quality
13.1
Measuring Quality
13.2
Tracking Quality
13.3
Production Quality Test Plan
13.4
Control Plans
Chapter 14: Supply Chain
14.1
Make vs. Buy
14.2
Types of Supplier Relationships
14.3
Owning Manufacturing or Using a CM
14.4
Supplier Selection
14.5
Documents
14.6
Managing Your Supply Base
14.7
Single vs. Dual Sourcing
14.8
Touring a Factory
Chapter 15: Production Planning
15.1
Production Planning Concepts
15.2
Forecast to Order Timeline
15.3
Complicating Factors
15.4
Shorter Lead Times are Better
Chapter 16: Distribution
16.1
Distribution Process
16.2
Outsourcing Distribution
16.3
Distribution System Design
Chapter 17: Certification and Labeling
17.1
Certifications
17.2
Labeling and Documentation
Chapter 18: Customer Support
18.1
Warranty
18.2
Recall
18.3
Customer Support
18.4
Customer Support Data
Chapter 19: Mass Production
19.1
Manufacturing Scalability
19.2
Continual Improvement
19.3
Cost Down
19.4
Auditing
19.5
Equipment Maintenance
19.6
Launching the Next Product
19.7
Conclusions
GLOSSARY
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
Y
ACRONYMS
REFERENCES
Index
Praise for
Product Realization: Going from One to a Million
End User License Agreement
List of Tables
Chapter 1
Table 1.1 Examples of start‐up products that have failed
Chapter 2
Table 2.1 Technology Readiness Levels
Table 2.2 Prototype maturity
Table 2.3 Manufacturing readiness levels
Chapter 3
Table 3.1 Organizational changes as teams transition to product realization
Table 3.2 Unique product realization process factors
Table 3.3 Description, alternative names, and characteristics of each pilot p...
Table 3.4 Alpha vs. beta product testing
Table 3.5 Pros and cons of various pilot locations
Chapter 4
Table 4.1 RASCI chart definitions of roles
Table 4.2 Example of a RASCI chart
Table 4.3 Risk tracking records and descriptions
Table 4.4 Example of risk tracking document
Chapter 5
Table 5.1 Specifications identified during product planning
Table 5.2 Types of stakeholders
Table 5.3 Concept specifications
Table 5.4 Specifications set during system‐level design
Table 5.5 Use scenarios
Table 5.6 Professional and consumer reviews
Table 5.7 Reviewing CPSC recalls can help identify critical safety specificat...
Table 5.8 Example FMEA
Chapter 6
Table 6.1 Categories of part types typically found in a bill of materials
Table 6.2 Data in the BOM for an assigned part
Table 6.3 Sample indented M‐BOM
Table 6.4 Pros and cons of BOM management tools
Table 6.5 Pros and cons of CAD vs. drawing vs. MBD
Chapter 7
Table 7.1 Design quality aspects and examples from a refrigerator
Table 7.2 Production quality aspects and examples from a refrigerator
Table 7.3 Types of testing
Table 7.4 Verification vs. validation
Table 7.5 Documents associated with the quality test plan
Table 7.6 Example of a quality test plan
Table 7.7 Types of tests run during the pilot phase
Table 7.8 A/B/C/D aesthetic surfaces and examples
Table 7.9 Types of aesthetic requirements
Table 7.10 Failure budget
Chapter 9
Table 9.1 Types of production systems
Chapter 11
Table 11.1 Manual vs. automatic assembly
Table 11.2 Contents of a process plan
Table 11.3 Sample process plan
Chapter 12
Table 12.1 Tooling types and terminology
Table 12.2 Tooling options for plastic parts*
Table 12.3 Steps to create tooling from design concept through production
Chapter 13
Table 13.1 Example of a process control plan
Chapter 14
Table 14.1 Characteristics of different supplier segments
Table 14.2 Comparison of local vs. global suppliers
Table 14.3 Pros of hiring small versus large firms
Chapter 15
Table 15.1 Production planning process
Table 15.2 Tradeoff between MOQ and price
Chapter 17
Table 17.1 Examples of information by location
List of Illustrations
Chapter 1
FIGURE 1.1 Example of delays in promised delivery dates
FIGURE 1.2 Chapter map
Chapter 2
FIGURE 2.1 Are you ready?
FIGURE 2.2 Prototyping phases for Embr Wave Bracelet
Chapter 3
FIGURE 3.1 Product realization process and its relationship to other product...
FIGURE 3.2 Going from 0 to 10,000
FIGURE 3.3 Steps in the pilot process
Chapter 4
FIGURE 4.1 Critical path and feeder tasks
Chapter 5
FIGURE 5.1 The spec doc supports all of the stages of product development
FIGURE 5.2 Parts of the specification document and when they are initially d...
FIGURE 5.3 Example of rendering of a passive speaker amplifier
FIGURE 5.4 Branding and logos of the SRAM XX1 Eagle Crankset
Chapter 6
FIGURE 6.1 Example of a color, material, and finish document.
FIGURE 6.2 Example of a drawing.
FIGURE 6.3 Relationship between the gift box, inner pack or carton, master c...
Chapter 7
FIGURE 7.1 Two refrigerators. The one on the left (a) is significantly more ...
FIGURE 7.2 Questions answered by durability testing
FIGURE 7.3 Thermal testing chamber.
FIGURE 7.4 Ingress protection ratings
FIGURE 7.5 Bottom bracket reliability equipment
FIGURE 7.6 Samples vs. test cycles
Chapter 8
FIGURE 8.1 Factors that go into the overall COGS, landed cost, and price
FIGURE 8.2 Costs for a battery as a function of capacity
FIGURE 8.3 Cost of batteries by MOQ
FIGURE 8.4 PCB costs by MOQ and number of layers
FIGURE 8.5 Two different cash flow models
Chapter 9
FIGURE 9.1 SMT line.
FIGURE 9.2 Typical factory areas
FIGURE 9.3 Finished goods inventory
Chapter 10
FIGURE 10.1 Linear process that locks design into non‐optimal solutions
FIGURE 10.2 Iterative design process that balances geometry, process, and ma...
FIGURE 10.3 Questions used to refine the possible manufacturing and material...
FIGURE 10.4 Possible ways to manufacture a metal part
Chapter 11
FIGURE 11.1 Example of flow chart for urethane casting
FIGURE 11.2 CNC lathe.
FIGURE 11.3 Electronics workstation.
FIGURE 11.4 Boeing 787 assembly station.
Chapter 12
FIGURE 12.1 Injection molding tool.
FIGURE 12.2 Urethane casting mold and part.
FIGURE 12.3 Bottom half of one module from the progressive stamping tool for...
FIGURE 12.4 Various machining fixtures.
FIGURE 12.5 Example cost per part for a small plastic part using different s...
FIGURE 12.6 Boeing 767‐400ER wing spar in its assembly fixture.
FIGURE 12.7 Cutting tooling.
Chapter 13
FIGURE 13.1 Pictures of gauges including a bore gauge, a pin gauge, thread g...
FIGURE 13.2 Example attribute SPC chart counting defects per batch
FIGURE 13.3 Process flow of a consumer electronics production system with qu...
FIGURE 13.4 Electronics testing facility.
Chapter 14
FIGURE 14.1 Contract manufacturing facility in China.
FIGURE 14.2 Supplier engagement document flow
Chapter 15
FIGURE 15.1 Lead time
FIGURE 15.2 Sales and production forecasting timeline
FIGURE 15.3 Order frequency impact on parts cost and inventory costs
Chapter 16
FIGURE 16.1 Relationships between terms for operations and distribution
FIGURE 16.2 Distribution system
Chapter 17
FIGURE 17.1 Sample label
FIGURE 17.2 Example of a smart SN
Chapter 18
FIGURE 18.1 Customer support paths and outcomes
FIGURE 18.2 Customer complaint data tracking
Chapter 19
FIGURE 19.1 Project selection matrix
Guide
Praise for Product Realization: Going from One to a Million
Cover Page
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Table of Contents
Begin Reading
GLOSSARY
ACRONYMS
REFERENCES
Index
WILEY END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT
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1
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Product Realization
GOING FROM ONE TO A MILLION
Anna C. Thornton
Illustrations by Karyn Knight Detering
This edition first published 2021
© 2021 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except as permitted by law. Advice on how to obtain permission to reuse material from this title is available at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.
The right of Anna C. Thornton to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with law.
The right of Karyn Knight Detering to be identified as an illustrator of this work has been asserted in accordance with law.
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John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, USA
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In view of ongoing research, equipment modifications, changes in governmental regulations, and the constant flow of information relating to the use of experimental reagents, equipment, and devices, the reader is urged to review and evaluate the information provided in the package insert or instructions for each chemical, piece of equipment, reagent, or device for, among other things, any changes in the instructions or indication of usage and for added warnings and precautions. While the publisher and authors have used their best efforts in preparing this work, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this work and specifically disclaim all warranties, including without limitation any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives, written sales materials or promotional statements for this work. The fact that an organization, website, or product is referred to in this work as a citation and/or potential source of further information does not mean that the publisher and authors endorse the information or services the organization, website, or product may provide or recommendations it may make. This work is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering professional services. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a specialist where appropriate. Further, readers should be aware that websites listed in this work may have changed or disappeared between when this work was written and when it is read. Neither the publisher nor authors shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages.
Library of Congress Cataloging‐in‐Publication Data
Names: Thornton, Anna C., 1968‐ author. | Detering, Karyn Knight, illustrator.
Title: Product realization : going from one to a million / Anna C. Thornton; illustrations by Karyn Knight Detering.
Description: Hoboken, NJ, USA : Wiley, 2021. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020030613 (print) | LCCN 2020030614 (ebook) | ISBN 9781119649533 (hardback) | ISBN 9781119649663 (adobe pdf) | ISBN 9781119649656 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: New products.
Classification: LCC TS170 .T485 2021 (print) | LCC TS170 (ebook) | DDC 658.5/75‐‐dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020030613
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020030614
Cover Design: Wiley
Cover Image: Karyn Knight Detering
This book is dedicated to my husband, Robbie, and my daughters Alexandra and Chloe.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I want to acknowledge the numerous people who helped make this book happen. Most importantly, my daughters and husband who have put up with me writing, editing, and taking over the kitchen table. Thank you to Karyn Knight Detering whose illustrations helped me organize my thoughts and keep my sense of humor. To my father Roy Thornton and editor Céilidh Erickson, who read every word made this a much better book. This book wouldn't have been written without the encouragement and prodding of Elaine Chen and Steven Eppinger. BU College of Engineering gave me the space and resources to develop the course on Product Realization. My collegues in 730 – Gerry Fine, Bill Hauser, and Greg Blonder – have been great sounding boards and helped me become a better teacher. Thanks also to Ken Rother, Clive Bolton, Ben Flaumenhaft, and Steve Hodges, who all contributed their expertise and experiences. A shout out to the team at Dragon including Scott Miller and Bill Drislane from whom I learned a lot. Thanks to all of the clients I have worked with, especially the people at Boeing, SRAM, and Fresenius Kabi. A special thanks to my friends Sarah and Rita, my mother, and coaches (Rita Allen, Cecile J. Klavens, and Susan Farina) who supported and encouraged me. Thanks to all those who wrote vignettes and supplied pictures. And finally, to all of my students, who read my first very rough drafts and asked hard questions, you are why I love to teach.
Please visit the website www.productrealizationbook.com for additional references and resources.
Chapter 1Introduction
1.1 Examples
1.2 Building Ten Thousand is Very Different from Building One
1.3 Product Realization is a Marathon
1.4 The Factory is Not a Giant 3D Printer
1.5 Three Rules
1.6 Why Learn about Product Realization?
1.7 Book Structure
New technology and new products have the potential to transform our lives and our society. Much is written about how to get a spark of an idea and translate that into a prototype and an initial business plan. However, surprisingly little is written about the thousands of complicated steps required to get from that prototype to a finished product in the hands of the customer. Unfortunately, teams almost always underestimate the pain, work, time, and resources involved. As a result, many companies launch new products late, over budget, and with substandard quality.
Product realization (also called launch, transition to production, piloting, or production ramp) starts when the product development team has a looks‐like/works‐like prototype, has defined the product geometry and material, has specified manufacturing methods, and is ready to produce at volume. Most groups believe that if the prototype works and there is a market, it will only take a few months to manufacture the product and start selling it. Whether the new product is a small widget or a complicated aircraft, many products arrive in the market later than anticipated. Many products also arrive with fewer features than planned or are over budget. There are invariably more complications and costs than the team initially predicted. By its very nature, product realization is an iterative, painful, but ultimately rewarding process.
There are only two near‐certainties in product realization: there will be more work than teams plan for, and almost nothing will be done perfectly the first time. Parts will not come out of the mold as expected, packaging will fail to protect products from breaking, and a supplier will not ship a critical part on time.
This book is designed to help students, engineers, start‐ups, and organizations navigate the complex and highly interrelated activities of getting a product into production. This book is not intended to help you come up with a brilliant product idea or market it – there are enough of those books. By understanding the road ahead with all its potholes and detours, teams will better anticipate potential problems before they significantly compromise their business plan. The lessons in this book were gleaned from experiences with over a hundred companies ranging from zero revenue start‐ups to multi‐billion‐dollar companies. While on the surface, the product realization process looks very different for an aircraft vs. a medical device vs. a new drone, most industries use similar methods, principles, and documents. Independent of size, every company must define the product, design their production system, and get everything to work while balancing the competing goals of cost, quality, and schedule.
1.1 Examples
The launch of the Tesla Model 3 appeared in over 500 New York Times articles from January 2017 to May 2018. Since Tesla announced the Model 3, it has become painfully apparent that Elon Musk and his team significantly underestimated the time it would take to bring a high‐volume car with dramatically new technology to the market, while at the same time building a highly automated manufacturing plant. In April 2017, Tesla's market valuation of 50.9 billion USD was higher than that of General Motors, and Tesla promised production of over 500, 000 cars in 2018. However, by the final week of March 2018, Tesla had only produced 2,000 Model 3 vehicles. By mid‐May of 2018, Tesla had shut down production to address critical production issues. Tesla increased production dramatically but by Q3 2019, they were still only producing at an annualized rate of around 319, 000 [1, 2]. While Tesla has not been forthcoming about the exact reasons for the delays in the production ramp, Tesla has hinted at bottlenecks, supplier delays, delivery challenges, quality issues, and over‐automation. Tesla is not unique in its struggles. Other highly publicized delays include:
The
Joint Strike Fighter
(
JSF
) contract (now F‐35)
1
award to Lockheed Martin was announced in 2001 with a plan for combat‐ready aircraft by 2010. The F‐35 has been significantly over budget and behind schedule. It is likely to cost over one trillion USD over the life of the program. As of the publication of this book, Lockheed Martin was still struggling with critical technical deficiencies as they got ready to increase production rates significantly [
3
].
The Boeing 787 was plagued with delays due to documentation errors, supplier delays, assembly errors, supply chain issues, and battery quality issues. The initial cost was budgeted at $6 billion, but it has been estimated that the total cost was probably closer to $32 billion [
4
].
GTAT's attempt to mass‐produce sapphire screens for Apple was plagued with production and yield issues. The yield issues were likely a contributor to the bankruptcy of the company in 2014 [
5
].
Problems with product realization are not unique to large companies. Companies such as GlowForge (a laser cutter) and Coolest Cooler (a cooler with a battery powered blender), that launched their products on crowdsourcing platforms, have been years late in delivery or never met all of their promised deliveries. Figure 1.1 shows an example of the accumulated delays in one crowdsourced product that raised close to 3 million USD. The original launch promised delivery in 7 months, but the first units did not ship until 27 months after the crowd‐sourced campaign. The timing of each announcement is shown by a horizontal bar with an arrow indicating the delay in the promised product delivery date. The company sent out an update 33 months after their launch, closing the company and apologizing to their customers with excuses about tight finances and increased prices. At the time this book was written, not all of the backers had their products, and the company had not sent an update for six months.
FIGURE 1.1 Example of delays in promised delivery dates
An article by Jensen and Özkil [6] found that over 40% of the Kickstarter products that they studied were more than a year late, and of those, half never delivered products. Jensen and Özkil found various reasons for these delays, but the most common reasons were issues in product delivery, issues found in quality testing late in production, and failure to ensure that the product was designed for manufacturing (DFM).
Each of the companies in Table 1.1 failed for its own reasons [7]. However, several themes emerge when looking at them as a group:
The technology was not ready for mass production
. Many product introductions failed because companies started product realization without ensuring the technology was mature enough. The prototype worked, but they could not produce in volume. If they were able to ship products, they delivered the product either at a lower quality than promised or with missing features.
The production system was not mature enough to support mass production.
While the product technology was ready, the methods to produce at volume were not. Some companies failed to develop a reliable supply chain, other companies were unable to find reliable manufacturing partners, while others were not able to produce with consistent quality.
Table 1.1 Examples of start‐up products that have failed
Source: From [7]
Product
History
CST‐01 (Central Standard Timing)
Raised over $1 million USD in crowdfunding pledges in 2013 to build the “world's thinnest watch.” Failed to deliver because (i) the technology was not stable enough, and (ii) they did not have the skills to make the product.
Elio P4 Scooter (Elio Motors)
Raised $17 million USD, promising to launch a three‐wheeled electric autocycle by 2014. As of 2019, the company had yet to deliver any products.
Zano drone (Toquing Group)
The promise of a tiny camera drone helped the company raise $4 million USD on Kickstarter in 2015, but the company soon filed for bankruptcy. Investigation revealed that the drone was never operational.
Coolest Cooler
This was the most‐funded Kickstarter campaign of 2014. Coolest was able to ship a small number of products but ran into funding issues before it was able to fulfill all orders.
It took too much time and too much money to get through the launch process.
Many times failed companies ran out of cash before mass production, and at other times, the lack of funds caused the product to be launched with sub‐par quality, leading to poor customer satisfaction and low follow‐on sales.
Inset 1.1: Icons
Throughout the text, you will see versions of these characters that were inspired by two sources: Mingyur Rinpoche's guides to mindful meditation and Ted Urban's TED talk on “Inside the mind of a master procrastinator” [8, 9]. The image is intended to highlight problems to avoid because of their significant downstream consequences. In addition, a number of other icons will be used to help you navigate the text.
Terms and jargon are used during product realization
Chapter summary and takeaways
Checklists to make sure you have completed everything
Documents you will need to create to support the product realization process
1.2 Building Ten Thousand is Very Different from Building One
Initial product design is about getting one item to work once under one set of conditions. Product realization is about getting a million to work every time under a million different conditions. A single prototype can be hand‐built by expert makers in a few weeks. To impress investors or faculty, the prototype only has to work once for the camera. The single prototype is typically operated by an expert who knows the quirks or bugs of the device and can avoid them.
By contrast, producing at scale and selling into the market involves building thousands of identical products that can be used by any customer in a wide range of environments. Manufacturing at high volumes is challenging because manufacturing processes introduce many sources of variation, all of which conspire to derail production, testing, shipping, and the customer's experience. Additionally, customers often use the products in unpredictable ways with unpredictable results. Finally, as products go from prototype to mass‐produced product, the number of people and organizations involved grows exponentially, further complicating the process and increasing the opportunities for defects and miscommunication.
A successful product must solve an actual customer problem, be of high quality, and be delivered to the consumer on time and at the right price. Launching products requires a complex interplay of activities, including:
Making sure the product is ready for production.
Assessing product and process safety and liability issues.
Addressing environmental issues such as hazardous material handling and waste disposal.
Designing the production system to build the product consistently at low cost.
Running several pilot plant builds to test the engineering, design, and manufacturing system.
Building a logistics system to get the materials to the factory on time and deliver the product to the customer.
Ensuring the product conforms to legal requirements.
Defining a quality control system to test for issues before products get into the hands of the customer.
Creating a customer support system.
Successful product realization requires coordinating a large number of activities to define, test, and deploy all of the systems to mass produce at high rates. It is not a matter of merely flipping a switch at the factory. Instead, each aspect of the production system has to be tested and debugged. No company can go from first test shot (Inset 1.2) to full production rates instantaneously, because no company can get everything right the first time. During piloting, teams will scramble to redesign parts, re‐cut tools, work with suppliers to improve quality, change assembly sequences, and undertake a myriad of other efforts to hit their launch goals. Here are some unexpected problems that teams often run into:
Inset 1.2: Why is Understanding Jargon Important
The product realization process is full of jargon, the meaning of which may not be obvious. Part of learning about product realization is learning how to talk to people in their language. For example, the box used in sand casting is called a flask. The term “wall wart” refers to the small power adapter that you plug a charger into (it only makes sense when you think about how ugly power adapters are). First test shots are the initial parts produced on a new injection molding tool. Throughout this book, we will use common product realization and manufacturing jargon. Text boxes with the dictionary symbol will be used to highlight terminology that readers may not be familiar with. There is also a comprehensive glossary at the back of the book.
As the speed and volume of production increase, more unexpected issues will arise with less time to fix them
. Many quality problems only become apparent when teams start building many copies of the same product at a high rate. First, producing more product gives more opportunities for low‐chance failures to happen. Second, processes do not produce the same quality at high volumes as those that operate at lower rates.
In‐line testing
does not capture defects
. Teams can carefully test their products both during and after assembly, but the tests often fail to replicate many of the conditions that the product will encounter in the field. As a result, the defects aren't found until after a customer finds them.
The product fails during the warranty
period due to unexpected stresses
. The product will be dropped, shaken, and generally abused by the users. It is easy to overlook usage scenarios that damage the product, especially for new technology the customer has never used before.
Companies are surprised by legal regulations late in the process
. Each product will need certifications to comply with EMF (electromagnetic field) exposure, EMI (electromagnetic interference), safety, and environmental laws. You do not want to be adding EMF shielding or redesigning charging circuitry late in piloting because you did not plan for passing key certification tests.
Customers find things they do not like just before launch
. Often, customers cannot give meaningful feedback on the product until they have a working unit using the final production‐intent materials. Unfortunately, this feedback usually occurs after building expensive tooling, and when design changes are costly and time‐consuming.
The forecast may not be accurate
. The procurement team must order all of the right materials well ahead of production. However, at the time orders need to be placed, the forecast is often very uncertain. Companies may need to lay out significant cash for excess inventory early or face potential material shortages later on.
To get through product realization, product development and manufacturing companies have developed highly interconnected tools, documentation, methods, and processes to manage these complexities. These product realization processes are put in place to reduce the chance of error, reduce variability, and improve the consistency and reliability of the product and production systems.
1.3 Product Realization is a Marathon
Product realization is like running a marathon. Everyone wants to focus on the promise of the first mile and the nail‐biting last mile, but the races are won or lost in the middle 24.2 miles (and most often in the Boston Marathon on Heartbreak Hill).
The first “mile” of any venture is the exciting one. The team gets to talk to customers, come up with ideas, create branding, hack hardware, and design cool t‐shirts. The first mile is the phase most books, innovation programs, and undergraduate and graduate business curricula focus on. Business students come out of business school classrooms armed with business plans. Engineering students spend most of their design classes building a single prototype and thinking they have learned how to develop a product. Building only one often provides a false sense of security to new graduates who underestimate all the subsequent steps it takes to get a product into the hands of a customer. Both business school and engineering students leave university assuming that that first mile is most of the marathon.
The last mile, getting the product across the finish line, also gets attention: business magazine articles are usually focused on what happens when the product arrives in the customer's hands. On the drier academic side, the post‐finish‐line period is also the focus of significant literature on optimizing operations once production is running at full rates.
The middle 24.2 miles – from a great idea to the first product on the shelf – is long, painful, and full of challenges. New teams are excited about their new product and have incredible energy going into the process, often naïvely not understanding the length and difficulty of the marathon ahead of them. With so little discussion of what happens in between the beginning and the end of this race, it's no wonder that companies or teams often underestimate the length and difficulty of the journey. Just as in a marathon, those who train and prepare have a higher chance of success. Naïve, untrained people get removed from the race on a stretcher.
Product developers who train for the product realization marathon can anticipate many of the challenges, make sure issues are proactively addressed, and have the right resources on board. By knowing what is ahead, teams reduce the pains and unknowns of the process and increase the odds of a successful outcome.
1.4 The Factory is Not a Giant 3D Printer
Most inexperienced (and even some experienced) teams think of the process of sending a design to the factory is similar to sending a file to a 3D printer and hitting print. They assume that after selecting a factory or contract manufacturer (CM), they can send the factory the drawings and a check, and ta‐da! – a product shows up via DHL in full working order in three months. Some manufacturers may even promise you that service, but you would be foolish to believe it.
Even if the product development team wholly outsources manufacturing, organizations still need to understand the processes that the product will go through to get produced. The product development team will need to test and provide feedback on production samples and continue to refine the design. Teams need to actively partner with the contract manufacturer or factory; they should understand enough about the process to respond quickly to any questions and to avoid potential errors. In short, teams can outsource the manufacturing itself, but not the responsibility for the manufacturing.
1.5 Three Rules
Most failures of product realization result from violating one of the three fundamental rules of product design:
Understand and design within the fundamental laws of physics
Ignore manufacturing at your peril
Know your costs and cash flow
You cannot break the fundamental laws of physics. Ultimately, hardware is governed by the laws of physics, mechanics, and electronics; a product that violates fundamental first principles will never work. This principle probably seems patronizingly apparent, but developers get into trouble when they promise something that is not feasible. In a notorious case, Elizabeth Holmes raised over $700 million USD in 2013 on the promise that Theranos would deliver at‐home medical testing from a single droplet of blood, based on little more scientific foundation than her desire to make it a reality [10].
Teams need to use sound engineering and analysis. In the author's experience, most quality issues, recalls, and product failures happen because the physics of either the design, materials, or manufacturing was overlooked in favor of visual appeal or unachievable functionality. As much as teams want to get eight hours of power out of a minuscule battery or pack a Wi‐Fi chip, Bluetooth, speaker, and headphone jack into a device the size of a quarter, the fundamental laws of physics limit what they can design using current technologies.
You cannot get white plastic to match white paint. Many of the practical realities of what happens when you actually have to build a product only become apparent through experience. For example, teams who have not designed products before often try to make all‐white products including a combination of molded plastic and painted parts. When they get the samples back, even when the Pantone colors are ostensibly identical, the two whites will never appear to match. In different lighting, they will look vastly different, and one will always look dirty. This rule, and thousands of others, is knowledge designers acquire through experience and critical evaluation of competitor products. Teams – even seasoned ones – should consult experts about the feasibility of producing their product. Caution: if your organization has no experience in a field and the first response of the team is “this should be easy,” it most likely will be a problem that will crop up 10 days before shipping to the customer.
Insufficient cash flow is the number one reason that start‐ups fail. Engineers should not live in a technical bubble. Product development requires an appreciation of the broader realities of cost, quality, resource limitations, and schedule. Too many business plans focus solely on the cost of the physical product and return on investment (ROI) without understanding the cash required to get the product built. Unfortunately, building hardware is a cash‐intensive process: teams need to outlay money for development, tooling, and samples long before any returns are actualized. By avoiding the pitfalls that we talk about in this book, teams can reduce the chance of unexpectedly running out of money before the product goes to market by more accurately predicting how much funding they should raise in the first place.
1.6 Why Learn about Product Realization?
No orchestra would perform without practice, or without at least reviewing the music first. Unfortunately, during most product launches (especially with start‐up teams), the players are learning to read music, learning a new instrument, and performing at the same time. This book is intended to educate the reader on all of the activities involved in product realization so that teams can be better prepared.
The decisions that your team makes in the early phases of design will have a significant downstream impact on your ability to get product smoothly into mass production. For example, a choice to solder wires rather than using an edge connector can reduce the COGS (cost of goods sold) (Section 8.3) but can also increase the risk of cold‐soldering failures that crack and drive defects. In another example, the decision to sell your product in multiple countries may increase sales but end up costing more in certifications and in‐country support.
It is very easy to get distracted by interesting technical challenges or trying to do too much. The following are several examples of issues that can distract or take focus away from what is most important.
Trying to make too much yourself
. Many teams get caught up in the fervor of innovation and want to produce the whole product themselves when outsourcing makes more sense. Teams end up doing jobs badly that a supplier could do cheaper, faster, and with better quality. For example, teams may try to manage in‐country distribution only to discover they cannot hire enough people at peak times; it can be much cheaper to outsource incoming deliveries and outgoing orders to a logistics company.
Selecting the cheapest manufacturer and ending up with quality issues
. It is often tempting to pick the lowest‐cost provider, but that often comes at the expense of poor quality or working with an uncooperative and unresponsive CM.
Promising aggressive timelines before understanding how long product realization takes
. It is tempting to promise customers that you will deliver product quickly. However, if you promise aggressive delivery timelines, you will need to rush through critical product testing or make your customers unhappy by being late. It is better to under‐promise and over‐deliver than the opposite.
Waiting to engage with service partners
. It is tempting to postpone engaging with downstream partners because “it should be easy” or “we're not at that stage yet.” For example, packaging design will always take longer than expected, but companies often delay the packaging because they think that “Packaging design won't take very long, it is just a box.” Companies often delay contracting with third‐party logistics providers (3PL) until the last minute and end up scrambling and paying a lot to get their products delivered to customers. By understanding partnership needs early, the company has a longer window to assess potential suppliers and deliberately choose the right ones.
Waiting to estimate costs until late in the process
. Teams do not want to advertise a target MSRP (manufacturer's suggested retail price) only to determine late that their landed costs (the cost of the product including delivery) are too high. Early estimates can indicate whether the teams have a chance of meeting target costs.
Assuming that it will be easy to minimize cost through volume
. Many products make it to market with a higher than expected COGS, but teams believe that they can reduce those costs when they reach peak volume. Unfortunately, many engineers overestimate those cost reductions. The unit price difference between one unit vs. 100 can be quite dramatic, but the marginal savings drop dramatically as the volumes go from 1,000 to 10,000.
Not planning carefully for cash flow
. When planning budgets or fundraising, understanding the real cost to get a product to the finish line can mean the difference between failure and success. It is horrible to run out of cash just at the time when you are ready to start selling to customers.
Not finding manufacturing issues until late in the pilot process
. Teams need to evaluate their designs for both manufacturability and ease of assembly as early as possible. You do not want to find out a part is not manufacturable after you have cut and paid for your tools.
Adding features late in the process
. The product management team will always be tempted to add features or product variety very late in the process. Because you do not leave yourself enough time to fully test the new features while increasing the complexity of the production system, quality failures inevitably arise. Having good discipline around sticking as close to the minimum viable product as possibly will reduce the chance of failure.
Not understanding the usage
of the product early and designing for it
. Too often, reliability and durability requirements are specified very late in the design process leading to expensive redesigns. Late design changes – for example, to increase reinforcements or reduce thermal loading – can delay product launch and drive up costs.
1.7 Book Structure
This book will walk readers through the process of going from a prototype through piloting to production ramp, and will introduce teams to the concepts, tools, and challenges of each step.
It is important to note that although the chapters in this textbook have to be laid out in a sequence, this does not mean that your team will be going through these processes one at a time or necessarily in order. Many processes will need to be executed simultaneously, and teams will iterate between them many times. For example, organizations need to plan the pilot process before they can appreciate the context of the quality planning process, but they also need to grasp the quality planning process to design the right set of pilots.
This book is written for a range of audiences including graduate and advanced undergraduate courses, start‐up teams, and larger companies. It is written from the point of view of a mechanical engineer with 20+ years directly involved in product design, and who still spends significant time on factory floors. As a result, the book focuses mainly on the engineering, cost, and scheduling issues related to getting a product through the piloting phases and into mass production, and less on marketing and financing. Because it is not possible to list all of the references in this text (and it would quickly become out of date), the website productrealizationbook.com contains additional references and resources for the reader.
The textbook is broken roughly into five sections shown on the map in Figure 1.2.
The first section (
The path ahead
) ensures the team is ready to start product realization (
Chapter 2
), gives the reader background on the product realization process (
Chapter 3
), and introduces several important product realization project management tools (
Chapter 4
).
The second section (
Product planning
) describes getting the product design ready, including ensuring a comprehensive specification document (
Chapter 5
), defining all aspects of the product design (
Chapter 6
), defining how quality will be verified and validated in the pilot runs (
Chapter 7
), and predicting product costs and managing cash flow (
Chapter 8
).
The third section (
Manufacturing planning
) focuses on getting the manufacturing system ready, including background on manufacturing systems (
Chapter 9
), ensuring the product is manufacturable (
Chapter 10
), defining the process so it can be executed (
Chapter 11
), designing and producing tooling (
Chapter 12
), and managing quality during production (
Chapter 13
).
The fourth section (
Production planning
) focuses on the management of the supply chain. It includes how to design your supply chain (
Chapter 14
), how to plan for production to ensure sufficient material (
Chapter 15
), and how to get your product to your consumer (
Chapter 16
).
The fifth and final set of chapters (
Selling your product
) covers the certifications your product will need (
Chapter 17
), how to set up ongoing customer support (
Chapter 18
), and what happens once you are at full production rates (
Chapter 19
).
FIGURE 1.2 Chapter map
When learning about the product realization process, you may find it easy to get lost in the weeds and lose sight of the overall production realization process. Figure 1.2 shows the relationships between the chapters and will be used as a map and guide throughout the book.
Summary and Key Takeaways
❑ Building ten thousand is very different from building one.
❑ Products fail during product realization for many reasons, including failures in technology readiness, production system maturity, and cash flow.
❑ Product realization is a complex, multifunctional process that involves a large number of people within and across organizations.
❑ During product realization, teams will need to balance cost, quality, and schedule. Ultimately, teams need to achieve all three to create a successful product.
❑ Understanding the road ahead will help teams better avoid problems and help them plan for the needed resources to accomplish their goals.
Note
1
Image source: Defense Visual Information Distribution Service. Public Domain Photo by A1C Brooke Moeder,
Luke F‐35 surpasses 35 K sortie milestone
. The appearance of US Department of Defense (DoD) visual information does not imply or constitute DoD endorsement.
Chapter 2Are You Ready to Start?
2.1 Is Your Concept Ready
2.2 Is the Technology Mature Enough
2.3 Is the Prototype Mature Enough
2.4 Is the Product Definition Mature Enough
2.5 Is Manufacturing Mature Enough
2.6 Is there Enough Cash and Is there Enough Time
2.7 How Ready is Ready
Entering product realization before the product is ready increases cost and reduces the chance of product success. This chapter defines what “readiness” means: namely, the product meets customer needs, the technology has been thoroughly tested, the manufacturing processes are mature enough, and all documentation has been prepared.
Checklist 2.1: Product Definition Maturity Checklist
❑
Is your design concept ready?
Does it meet the customer needs at a reasonable price point? Does the product have a viable business model?
❑
Is the technology used in the product mature enough?
Has the team ensured new untested technology will perform reliably? Does any of the technology have any fundamental reliability or quality flaws?
❑
Is the prototype mature enough?
Is the prototype a true engineering prototype that represents all of the production‐intent details?
❑
Is the product definition mature enough?
Has the team documented the product so it can be transferred to the factory and be built to specifications?
❑
Are the manufacturing processes mature enough?
Have any new manufacturing process technologies been matured and shown that they can operate at full rates?
❑
Do you have enough time?
Have you accurately assessed the time required to get the product ready for production or are you going to be late?
❑
Do you have enough cash on hand?
Have you thought through the cost to do the necessary pilot runs and the actual cost to launch the product?
❑
Have you addressed all of the readiness risks?
If you are going into piloting with a less than mature product, have you created a risk management plan?
Companies often rush into production with an immature concept, trying to get ahead of the competition or meet unrealistic customer promises. Rushing into product realization too soon invariably leads to downstream failures that ultimately cost the team time and money. When teams move into product realization, the cash flow required increases dramatically: more people have to be hired, non‐recurring engineering costs accumulate, and materials have to be purchased. It is better to spend an extra month getting ready when your burn rate is $10, 000 per month than to spend an extra month in piloting when your burn rate is 10 times that amount.
While it is tempting to “just get started and figure it out later,” teams need to ask themselves the hard questions about their readiness before committing the resources and capital to start production. Figure 2.1 and Checklist 2.1 summarize the questions and actions to take if the answer to any of the readiness questions is no. The following sections go into more detail on each of the measures of readiness.
2.1 Is Your Concept Ready?
Many products fail because they don't meet the needs of the customer at the right cost. Before starting product realization, it is crucial to ensure that you have a design concept that meets an important customer need and that you have a sustainable business model. Here are a few examples of products that went through product realization – or most of it – and failed because they failed to satisfy this fundamental readiness measure. In each of these cases, the design of the product didn't meet a customer need at the right price.
FIGURE 2.1 Are you ready?
Juicero was the darling of the investor community around 2016. It raised over $120 million to produce an $800 machine that squeezed juice from a bag of pre‐cut cleaned fruits and vegetables. An exposé in Bloomberg News [11] revealed that the fruit and vegetable packs the company supplied could just as easily be squeezed by hand. After the publication of this video, Juicero became a widely mocked failure [12]. A teardown by the blog Bolt highlighted that over‐engineering the machine had driven up complexity and therefore cost:
Our [Bolt's] usual advice to hardware founders is to focus on getting a product to market to test the core assumptions on actual target customers, and then iterate. Instead, Juicero spent $120 M over two years to build a complex supply chain and perfectly engineered product that is too expensive for their target demographic.
[13]
The author recently had a conversation with a young engineer who was enamored of what he considered high‐quality engineering that went into the Juicero. Although he had read all of the articles referenced here, he kept insisting that the engineering was excellent. It took a while to convince him that it was in fact poorly engineered. While the complicated technical details were impressive in their own right, the machine did not meet the needs of the customer: it was too expensive and did not do the job as well as someone kneading the bag with their hands. Sound engineering is measured by meeting the customer need at the right price point and quality, not by part count or complex mechanisms.
Another new beverage product that failed around the same time was the KeurigKold, an attempt to expand Keurig's already popular hot coffee and tea product line into the realm of cold beverages using individual serving pods. They invested 100 million USD in fiscal year 2015 with a plan to spend a similar amount in subsequent years. They had agreements with both Coca‐Cola and the Dr. Pepper Snapple Group to distribute their proprietary drinks. Within one year, though, Keurig pulled the product from the market. Several factors likely contributed to the failure. The unit was expensive and bulky, and the price point for each pod was higher than the cost of a single can of Coke [14]. Customers were just not willing to pay the cost of the device and the pods to get something they could already conveniently purchase ready‐made and at lower cost.
Google Glass, which launched in 2013, was an attempt at bringing the technology and capabilities of a smartphone to a wearable device through the application of augmented reality (AR). When Google released Google Glass the product had several fatal flaws, including clunky aesthetics, an unwieldy user interface, and short battery life. The ultimate reason for the failure was that while the technology was impressive, it didn't solve any discernible customer problem and thus never found a user base [15].
2.2 Is the Technology Mature Enough?
“We have a cool new technology” is often interpreted as “we are ready to sell to customers,” but that is rarely a useful metric for readiness. A working bench test can demonstrate the feasibility of the technology, but it cannot demonstrate safety, reliability, scalability, performance, or manufacturability. For technology to be truly mature, it must meet performance targets, be producible at volume, and work reliably for all customers in all environments.
The EV1 from GM, launched in 1996, was one of the first mass‐produced fully electric vehicles. There was significant media buzz about the product when it was launched, and many potential customers expressed interest. However, the car was pulled from the market just a few years later because it could not provide the basic functionality that most car buyers needed. Its heavy battery could only hold enough charge for short‐distance driving, and the interior could only seat two passengers. Electric vehicles eventually came to market (e.g. GM's Bolt, the Tesla, and Nissan's Leaf) only when battery technology became sufficiently advanced to allow drivers a driving experience comparable to that of traditional vehicles [
