In our experience, most first-time hardware production launches in China are failures in the sense that the initial projections of budgets and timelines are totally blown, often because of widespread quality issues.
With this worrying statistic in mind, our project managers and engineers help creators, inventors, entrepreneurs, and hardware startups get into a position where they can successfully launch the production of a new product by providing a comprehensive new product introduction framework and support throughout.
What is Sofeast’s new product introduction solution?
If you only have the design of your product and you still have all the development work ahead of you, you will generally need to go through these 6 steps:
- 1. Defining specifications
- 2. Feasibility/proof of concept
- 3. Prototyping
- 4. Tooling
- 5. Pre-production prep
- 6. Production
We provide you with hands-on technical guidance, support, and management of these steps, or, if you are already somewhere along the process already, we assist you to move even faster in the direction of mass production.
If you haven’t already launched several products that were manufactured in China, the odds are truly against you. We made NPI the speciality of our Product Engineering department. Our product engineering and project management experts advise and support you along the way.
Sofeast is most helpful to companies that need to develop a new product with electronic and/or mechanical components. It matches our past experience in this domain and the competencies of our engineering team.
Read more about why hardware startups run into problems when launching new products.
Here are typical ways we help companies make their NPI and DFM successful:
- Consulting on setting the right strategy (deciding what type of manufacturer to use, which component suppliers need to be directed, etc.).
- Confirmation of realistic objectives for the project and defining the plan.
- Assistance in screening and vetting the manufacturing partner(s).
- Review of product design, risk analysis, and guidance on improvements required.
- Collection of components for prototypes, and assembly and testing of prototypes.
- 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: Creating work instructions, training, etc.
- Follow up on the pilot run, documentation of serious gaps, and guidance on an improvement plan.
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.
How much does it cost?
Every production project is unique, so the cost of the new product introduction solution is totally dependent on the scope of work.
We can start to support your NPI process from 1,000 USD upwards. Or we can manage the entire development of your new product for you. Just hit the button below to request more information.
