Monday, April 18, 2016

Before Investing In New Product Development

Make sure that your operation's capabilities meet or exceed the requirements of your new product development project BEFORE you make a major investment! Assess every requirement before investing in equipment, manpower or even 3rd party manufacturing resources including, but not limited to engineering, production, procurement, sales/marketing and customer services.

Recently, I listened to a horror story by an entrepreneur who took a new product concept to a manufacturing company that boasted a high level of engineering expertise. They reviewed the complexed product specifications and gave it a thumbs-up but missed one attribute of expertise that led to failure...precision.

After $400,000 was invested in new machinery and tooling, it was discovered that the level of precision necessary to convert the drawings into a properly functioning product, exceeded their engineering skill and equipment capabilities. Numerous production attempts consistently fell short of market worthiness and the investment was lost.

Determine if your new product development concept strategically fits your business or that of a 3rd party's manufacturing operation. Identify ALL of the requirements of your new product's attributes and then examine products with similar attributes that have successfully gone through the same engineering, design and manufacturing process. Leave no stone unturned.

Posted by Dennis Paris, Tangerine Strategies, dennisparis@tangerinestrategies.com