New Product Introduction (NPI)

Here are typical ways we help companies make their NPI and DFM successful:

• Consulting on the right strategy (deciding what type of manufacturer to use, which component suppliers to direct, etc.).
• Confirming realistic project objectives and documenting a plan that we refresh at each milestone.
• Assistance in screening and vetting the manufacturing partner(s).
• Review of product design through Design for Manufacturing (DFM) and Design for X (DFX) reviews, including risk analysis and guidance on improvements required.
• Engineering design (as needed, often working alongside your team), assembly and testing of prototypes.
• Setup of a reliability plan (including a test plan) and execution of the tests, failure analyses, and suggestions for improvement.
• Development of a compliance testing plan and management of certifications.
• Advice about, and management of, tooling (molds, fixtures, dies, etc.) for production and testing.
• Preparing the assembly line: drafting or reviewing work instructions and QC checklists, review of production readiness during pilot run(s), etc.
• Monitoring the start of mass production, documenting serious gaps, and guiding corrective actions.

Yes, you can see our 6 NPI phases that we’d use to structure your project and how they follow on from each other in this video walkthrough:

One of our project managers, as well as some of our engineers, are in frequent contact with you and update you every step of the way. We typically use collaborative software such as Trello or Asana, to make communication as fluid as possible.

Intellectual property protection is something we take very seriously when developing and manufacturing a new product with clients, so for more information on that read:

• How To Create A Valid Manufacturing Contract In China To Protect Your IP – this talks you through the legal side of IP-protection and what how a legitimate ‘manufacturing contract’ for your supplier/s needs to be written and what it should contain.
• IP Protection For Manufacturers: Keep Component Suppliers In The Dark – this post focuses on ‘non-legal’ approaches that we take to insulate your IP from suppliers and sub-suppliers, such as those producing a single component, in order to avoid IP infringement.