The Design for Production Process at Industrial Works
We’ve seen it a thousand times before – an inventor or business owner has a great idea for a new product but simply doesn’t have the means to produce the metal components needed to make that idea a reality. Many job shops require customers to bring in schematics and finalized plans on day one. Industrial Works, however, can help transfer a customer’s conceptual ideas to paper and then advance it using design techniques that align with today’s manufacturing processes. This makes the process efficient and often leads to reduced costs.
Read on to learn more about how our team can help turn your ideas, plans, or prototypes into scalable production-ready designs!
Initial Idea or Prototype
Our design process begins when a customer comes through our door with an idea for a product or assembly they need manufactured at scale. Many times, this idea comes in the form of a rough prototype or proof of concept. Other times, this idea is nothing more than some basic schematics or an underdeveloped sketch.
Whether the customer brings a working prototype with completed schematics or just a rough idea that needs developing, our team is always ready to evaluate the product and make adjustments that may be necessary for scaling up production.
Developing Your Product for the Market
After our initial meeting, our work begins with identifying the long-term goals of your product and determining what can be done to ensure the product is ready for the market. We work to determine what sets your proposed product apart from other competitors, what price a consumer or business may be willing to pay for each of your completed products, and what can be done to give the product the most utility.
This step involves budgeting out your product and then determining ways to push the price of your final product down. By doing so, we aim to maximize your potential margins and ensure production is as cost-effective as possible. It also helps determine which features of your product are important, and which features need to be further refined. Once this initial stage is complete, we will have strategically positioned your product to target the ideal niche and price point that will resonate best with potential customers.
Designing Your Product for Manufacturing
Once your product has been developed in a manner that will appeal to customers, the next step is designing it in such a way that it can be easily and repeatedly manufactured. This design phase is far more detailed than any previous stage and involves creating the technical data specs for each component of your final product.
Our in-house design team leverages advanced software to create these schematics, which feature all of the precise measurements and specifications that will allow us to produce consistent and reliable machined parts. Once the design process is completed, the final technical data is passed along to our IMFG business unit for full-scale production!
Why is This Process so Important?
Many of our competitors require their customers to come prepared with the full technical data for the parts they want manufactured. This would often require contracting with an engineering firm to design your product – but our team can eliminate that step by designing your product in-house! Industrial Works helps to develop your ideas, providing value at each stage of design that can help your product succeed in the post-production market.
Our design process also helps to drive down your costs, making your final assembly as cost-effective as possible, and allows us to make your design efficient to manufacture, ensuring top quality and the shortest lead times.
A great example of this process is the development of a product for Legend Brush Guards. They first met with our team and presented their idea of a brush guard for trucks that could be mounted on an existing snowplow mount – an idea which no other company had been developing! Our designers took their hand-built prototype and redeveloped it for efficient and repeatable production. Their business is thriving, in large part because of the effort that was put into properly designing their product for manufacturing at scale.
If you’ve got a prototype, schematics, or even just an idea of the metal parts you need manufactured, Industrial Works is the right partner for you! Reach out to us today to talk about your parts run, and let’s put you on the path to success.