Product / Design readiness involves the entire process of establishing our product plans, designing and developing that product such that it will excel in your chosen market. The value we add in product / design readiness include the following:

Design for X: In this case X is manufacturability, testability, reliability, and other characteristics which enable you to scale production, and make money with your product. Some of these have direct line of sight to your customer, while others dictate more about your ‘backroom’ success.

Reliability Management: Your design, component & supplier selections, manufacturing defectivity and test screens will all contribute to the reliability of your product, both in the early life failure and steady state modes. We have particular strength in working with you to engineer your product’s failure rates to meet your customer’s expectations. This allows you to link this to warranty commitments, and financial provisions….no surprises!

Lifecycle Cost Optimization: Reliability, in part, drives life cycle cost but it encompasses much more. Selecting the right components, manufacturing processes, and infrastructure dictate your future costs. Customers will be expecting you to demonstrate the relationship between cost and time and also cost and volume (economies of scale). Much of this can be understood before ever hitting high volume.

Demand fulfillment is the set of processes, starting with a customer desire to place an order, and ending with the delivery of the right products at the right time, in the right place, with the right quality and quantity, and last but not least, collection of payment. Our years of experience in this area enables us to add value in key areas.

Capacity and Resource Planning: Early stage companies typically do not have a lot of detailed information about volumes they’ll eventually supply to the market. It is however, very powerful to estimate in very approximate terms (ie…how many digits does it have?), what the volumes will be, then create capacity and resource plans to support that. Even if your volumes end up being dramatically different, it will help to have started with an aligned plan, and be able to deviate consciously from that balanced plan.

Agility Management: Growth is never a smooth line. Your market will be volatile. Are you in a ‘ship it all in the last week of the quarter’ market for example? You can deliberately build agility mechanisms into your supply chain. If you don’t, you’ll bear the costs and disappointments associated with a rigid supply chain trying to serve a volatile market.

Make-Buy Decisions & Outsourcing Management: Make-Buy decisions are ones which will determine the very shape of your company, and paying due attention to all the relevant factors is necessary if you are to make the right decision. We understand these factors.

Risk Management in the Supply Chain: Your supply chain has risks of all sorts including technology risks, lifecycle risks, and responsiveness risks to name a few. We have structured methodologies which can ensure that the major risks are uncovered early and then addressed.

Shipping product and getting paid for it is not the end of your challenges….at least not if you’re seeking repeat business. Also, a customer support system which satisfies your customers is only half the battle…is it contributing positively to your financial health? Consider the following:

Initial Customer Engagement: When you first engage a customer, do you really think they’re assessing your product only? When you engage a supplier, don’t many aspects of their business leave an impression with you? How were the people to deal with? How were they supporting you after delivery? These are key. At such early times, your business sets a precedent in how you support your customers. It will be difficult to overcome service disappointments, and on the other end of the scale, great “Call me day or night” service may be difficult to discontinue or to begin charging for.

Support Plans: Thinking early about how customers will engage you, how they’ll pay for service, and how it will be packaged can make the difference between your service being a financial burden versus a money-maker.

Warranty: There are several key decisions in composing your warranty strategy. We can help you connect the dots between product reliability, warranty commitments, affordability, and numerous execution details such as reverse logistics.

Even if you have a strong product, an able supply chain, and the other discrete strengths which are needed in a successful business, it is how you link it to make the whole greater than the sum of it’s parts which can really differentiate you from your competition! Here are some of the linkage mechanisms which we can help you implement:

Business Performance Management: What do you measure to determine success of your business? Can all employees recognize the links between their job and these company metrics? If not, their motivation will not be as great. How well do your accounting structures reinforce overall, as opposed to local optimization? These are key questions that we can help you with.

Information Technology: Are your systems scalable? Do they tie your business together or do functional groups each use different systems and then communicate separately? Through an associated company, we can assess your I.T. infrastructure and work with you to ensure that it is both affordable and doing the job it needs to in successfully linking the functions together.

Quality Systems: A quality system should not be a burden. If implemented properly, it links and aligns, and introduces discipline which helps you achieve your goals. A good quality system is a reflection of your sound practices, not a distinct set of processes. Whether you have or require ISO9000, or industry specific registrations such as TL9000 for the telecom industry, we can work with you to complete a gap analysis, then together close those gaps, culminating in registration.

Incentive Mechanisms: People who join a young enterprise do so because they welcome risk, and are anxious for larger than average rewards….that or they are purely passionate about the business opportunity. As you add people, the level of interest in more traditional employment benefits become more important. How you incent people at different stages of corporate evolution, not just in classical HR areas, is key.