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How To Improve Product & Machinery Design
The solution is to redesign the equipment used on your production line so that more parts of the production process are automated.
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Business New Haven
11/22/1999
By: Susan Banfield
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Let's say you had designed a new widget back in 1965. Back then, it was a truly innovative concept in widgets, and for years your widget was a reliable money-maker for your company. Recently, however, other companies have come out with similar widgets - only theirs have been faster and able to withstand higher temperatures. You started to push the envelope on your widget, but found that mechanical failures increased at higher speeds and temperatures.
What is the solution? In order to retain your market share, you need to re-engineer your widget using sophisticated analysis methods which your firm simply does not possess.
The need to keep up with what the competition is doing is just one of several situations which can be remedied by re-engineering your product or equipment. Another scenario typical of the current labor market is having difficulty finding employees who are willing to, and capable of, performing the various manual tasks involved in the manufacture of your product.
The solution here is to redesign the equipment used on your production line so that more parts of the production process are automated. Unfortunately, your engineers are not versed in automation equipment or are too busy with day-to-day work.
Yet another situation for which redesign is the solution: You find that the number of finished products coming off your assembly line that do not pass the final quality check has increased. You tinker with the equipment and make adjustments, and the number of rejects goes down for a while, but shortly begins to climb again. You are concerned about the money wasted with the high number of imperfect products.
Here, too, redesigning the equipment used on your assembly line can solve the problem. It can result in machinery that produces a more reliably precise end product, without a need for constant tinkering and adjustment.
If you have any of the above-described situations on your hands, you are in need of short-term engineering support. In the past, many companies floated a full staff of engineers for these situations. Today, however, many companies find that the expense of keeping engineers on staff, augmented by that of acquiring the equipment they need to do their job, is prohibitive.
An engineer generally makes at least $60,000, plus benefits. The computer system they need costs in the neighborhood of $5,000. CAD software is $15,000, and the analysis software is twice that. In most cases it makes more sense to outsource your mechanical design needs, freeing you up to concentrate on your company's core competencies.
The number of firms doing outsourced product and equipment design is growing. The good firms maintain a permanent staff of engineers with years of experience in various fields. In addition, they maintain the expensive CAD and analysis tools at their offices - so you do not have to.
When selecting a company to handle your product or equipment design needs, be sure to select one with expertise in the area or areas you need. Some firms deal with mechanical engineering. Others specialize in electronics, controls or other fields. Remember, too, that even though a redesign project has been outsourced, it is important to have someone in-house keep a fairly close watch over the progress of the project. The successful outsourced project is managed as a team effort with few barriers between companies. The current availability of e-mail makes this team approach transparent to distance.
Redesigning a product or a piece of equipment can reap terrific benefits for a company. One local firm reported 800-percent growth over a recent three-year period during which they redesigned their existing products and launched six completely new products. The new designs enabled them to blow their competition out of the water, and to capture a specialty market as well.
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