In episode 305 of China Manufacturing Decoded, Adrian and Paul dig into a question that most new hardware founders don’t really want to face: can you actually afford to take your product from idea to mass production? They unpack the most dangerous cost myths (like “MOQ × unit price is my total cost” or “we’ll fix reliability later”), then walk through Sofeast/Agilian’s structured NPI phases to show where the money really goes, from early engineering work and tooling through pilot runs and ramp-up.
Along the way, they share hard-won lessons from projects that ran out of cash at the worst possible time, and offer simple “readiness checks” so you can judge whether you’re genuinely prepared to launch, or need to rethink your plan before burning money.
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Listen to the episode or watch on YouTube
Episode Sections:
- 00:00 – Intro & who this episode is for
- 07:02 – Mythbusting: YouTube & “$10k product launch” myths
- 12:13 – The Sofeast/Agilian 6-phase NPI process
- 21:18 – How your budget is split across the phases
- 29:00 – What to expect in each phase & readiness checks
- 37:31 – Tooling, NRE, and why half a tooling budget is worse than none
- 43:42 – Budgeting properly and adding contingency
- 45:21 – Call to action & how Sofeast/Agilian can help
Further reading
How We Work With You On New Product Development & Manufacturing Projects- How to Calculate the Cash Needed to Prototype & Launch your New Product
- Why does new product development take so long?
- What is an NRE Cost (Non-Recurring Engineering)?
- 10 Factors Affecting Electronic Product Design Costs
- Costs and Milestones to go from Product Concept to Market?
- The New Product Development Process in Electronics
- New Product Development In China: 4 Tips To Go Faster
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