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Importance of Prototyping Before Production
Prototypes are critical to product development since they are the ideal representation of the intended final product. Prototype production helps product teams understand the products better since they create a physical model for effective review. Hence, designers and engineers can optimize the design to resolve issues or add new features. Prototyping is one of the core stages of the product development process. Also, prototyping before mass producing offers other benefits, including:
- Verifying the functionality of the product design
- Testing design features and adding extra features
- Design flaws identification and resolution before the final production
- Collecting feedback from users
Stepwise Guide to Moving Your Product from Prototype to Production Stage
Each product and the manufacturing process has its nuances and procedures. That a technique that worked effectively for an already launched product doesn’t mean it would be compatible with your new project or products. The standard processing phases involved in transitioning from prototype to production of final products include:
Making a Digital Prototype
Developing a digital prototype model helps you to transform your design concept into a final product. This often involves a series of procedures, including:
- Conceptual Prototyping: The conceptual prototyping process is a cost-effective approach that involves conveying ideas and assessing concepts similar to yours. This communication effectively helps identify basic product specifications, features, and potential issues. Product teams can easily depict and communicate design ideas in conceptual prototyping using sketching and Styrofoam cutting.
- Evolutionary Prototyping: This prototype design process helps make additional analyses and modify a concept prototype. Material availability, cost, and performance impact this prototyping type. As a progressive process, the initial design is tested continuously and studied pending its mass production and launch to market.
The current prototyping stage determines the estimated prototyping timeline. If you are in the concept and ideation phase, it may take a week to a month, depending on how fast your design gets approved. Depending on design complexities, your prototyping production can take a few days to a few weeks if your design is ready. However, with machining experts like AT-Machining, you can get your prototypes faster for design verification and iteration.
Conduct Market Research and Product Testing
Once the prototype is ready, you should assess its acceptability and demand levels before scaling for mass production. We’ll explore how to go about it in this below:
Evaluate the Demand for the Product
Crowdfunding a project is one of the most feasible ways of testing the demand level for a project. It shows that such products will be in high demand after launch once people show interest in crowdfunding.
Tooling, Sampling, and Non-Production Release
Tooling involves transforming prototypes into a physical sample with several replications from a digital design. Conversely, sampling involves examining the products according to their functionality and performance. It helps modify a product where necessary before mass production. These non-production release phase, tooling, and sampling processes,
Confirm the Prototype is Ready for High-Volume Production
You can make changes to the design of your prototype after development to optimize its quality and avoid errors. Preventing errors and defects in the prototyping phase would optimize production costs and lead times in the long run.
Transitioning from Prototype to Low-volume Production
The next step is to migrate to low-volume production after the designed prototypes meet the necessary functional, fit, form, and aesthetics standards. Low-volume production, usually a pilot production run, involves creating products in small quantities or batches. To meet market demand, the items produced may range from 50 to a few thousand. Similarly, depending on the project, it is a fundamental step to mass production. Nevertheless, there are factors you need to have in mind before you begin low-volume manufacturing:
Prepare the Required Documents
There are different documents that would aid the low-volume production process. These include:
- 3D Files: These files contain the prototype design files. They must be well-detailed and high-quality and indicate all system parts.
- Material, Color, and Finish: It comprises essential product details like color, material type, and compatible finish for every prototype.
- Product Requirement Document (RDP): It identifies your product’s features, value, and purpose.
- Costed Bill of Material (CBOM): It consists of the costs of materials for all the components of your prototype.
- Final Prototype Review: This documents the prototype’s progress, indicating its key challenges and constraints.
- Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA): This contract protects the confidentiality of the prototyping and production details. Your product manufacturer signs the contract to confirm that your designs will not be revealed or shared with a third party.
Ideal Lead Time
The lead time is usually short if you outsource your project to a manufacturing company from prototype to final product stage. Conversely, the lead time is stretched when you contact a manufacturer after your prototyping phase because such a manufacturer would need to make 3D design models. Also, the engineers would need to figure out how best to make and test the components of your prototype.
Besides, the engineering design complexity and production scale are other typical factors determining the lead time for your prototyping production. Products with complex designs and high volumes often take longer lead time than those with simple designs and low volumes.
Estimate the Total Manufacturing Budget
The estimated production budget is a major determinant of your project’s fast-paced transition from prototyping to manufacturing. The low-volume production process is usually smooth with a substantial budget since it offers the manufacturers adequate resources to design, create molds, and use the right materials for the project. Production takes longer than usual when the manufacturing budget falls below optimum.
Submit Products for Actual Production
The focus of every design and manufacturing process is large-scale production. It is usually the peak of the whole cycle. Here are helpful considerations before giving products out for mass production:
Intended User Experience
What you intend for your product’s end users to feel is a major factor during prototyping and mass production. Evaluate the experience you want a user to have while using your product. It helps you to create products that effectively meet the needs of consumers.
Overall Production Volume
Another critical consideration is the desired volume of product you want to manufacture. However, the product’s demand will help decide the right volume of product to manufacture. It helps choose between low-volume or high-volume manufacturing. However, AT Machining is a reliable and trusted specialist for your on-demand manufacturing needs.
Maximum Manufacturing Budget
The manufacturing budget comprises the amount you plan to spend throughout the production process. Assessing the budget when you give your products out for mass production is critical. Monitoring your manufacturing budget helps avoid time and resource wastage and running into dead ends.
Launch Product to Market
Your product is ready for launch after the low-volume production run. However, it would be best for the quality control experts to test the first samples against quality procedures after the launch. These product samples are subjected to lifecycle testing. The quality control team inspects and studies factory production, documenting and highlighting significant quality changes.
Also, they review process flow analysis, data collection, and confirmation methods, the effectiveness of in-process testing, packaging, and inspection of finished products, and their ability to withstand unexpected conditions.
Considerations To Successful Accelerate Your Products from Prototype to Mass Production
Various factors can influence the outcomes when moving from prototype to production. Here are expert strategies on how to achieve a seamless transition from prototype to production:
Prepare for the Unexpected
When accelerating from prototyping to production, it would be best to plan for the worst, even though it may sound pessimistic. It protects you and your resources from unnecessary wastage. Hence, aspects of manufacturing requiring additional planning include production, regulations, and shipping.
It would be best to assume that partnering with a reputable manufacturer would be time-consuming, costly, and difficult when planning for production. This is particularly true when establishing a repeatable assembly process, quality control, and documentation. Likewise, ensure that your preferred tolerances and product specifications are well communicated to your manufacturer when handling mechanical or electrical components.
Regarding regulations, essential government testing and certifications must be implemented, including FCC certification, CE testing, and UL for safety testing and electrical. It would be beneficial to repeat this process a few times to ensure regulatory compliance.
Regarding shipping, remember that there would be import fees and taxes, particularly on shipments from overseas suppliers. It would help if you considered the shipment’s transport medium to plan and estimate shipment. While sea shipment is more economical, it takes longer than air shipment.
Get a Proof Concept to Validate Product Design
A rule of thumb is never to assume your product is ready for production if a manufacturer or engineer well-versed in the manufacturing process and materials required to manufacture your product has yet to review it. Hence, contacting a renowned supplier and allowing them to work on a proof of concept for your product is paramount as it guarantees design feasibility.
Avoid Tooling Before Completing Design
Ensure your product design requires no further adjustment before you proceed to tooling. It would be better to wait a few days than tooling with the wrong design. Tooling with an incompatible design would waste resources and time, as you may eventually have to discard the tool.
Create a Test Plan to Verify Reliability and Performance
Conducting a validity, reliability, and performance test for your product design and prototype is another intelligent strategy that helps to save costs and time in the long run. It safeguards you from a situation where your product users would have to give negative reviews after purchase. It would be best to subject your product samples to accelerated life testing in extreme conditions to examine their reaction. It helps you to identify any weaknesses of the design/product, giving room for further modifications.
Pilot Run before mass-producing
Performing pilot runs before production helps to confirm that the design is suitable for production. Manufacturers often practice this with each product within the range of 20 to 100. A pilot run helps identify and resolve design issues in the prototype. Thus, ensure your manufacturer implements the pilot run in your project to avoid incurring extra costs due to product failure.
Ask Your Manufacturer to sign a Development and Manufacturing Contract
When you and your product manufacturer sign a development and manufacturing contract, it allows you the rights stated expressly therein. If you want your manufacturing partner to become accountable for any issues, i.e., product quality, you should make sure it is included in the contract. Also, include it in the contract if you want the exclusive rights to the tooling and have the supplier sign it.
AT-Machining: Your One-Stop CNC Shop to Meet Your Prototype and Part Production Projects
Manufacturers and designers successfully transform products from screens to physical products that can be handled through careful planning, strategizing, and execution. However, the process from the creation of a prototype to production of the part should be seamless with the right manufacturing company.
AT-Machining is the ideal manufacturing whenever you need to accelerate the development stages of your new product and reduce time to market. Our experienced experts leverage professional prototyping and production capabilities to deliver precise, high-quality custom parts with the desired finish. We offer extensive manufacturing processes ranging from rapid prototyping and low-volume production, CNC machining, 3D printing, and Injection molding to sheet metal fabrication. Don’t hesitate to contact us today! let experts handle your products from prototyping to mass production.
