Product Development - an all-round service
by Nicola Plesnarowicz

Have you ever found yourself in the situation where you are trying to convince someone to order your product that they cannot see? In the development stage of a product, sales before you start production are a benefit. This is where a product development company can help. The product is not yet made but you now have the ability to see it. Not only does it help with sales but it can also help with getting funds from the right authority.

I have been taught that at the forefront at most successful marketing campaigns is a customer orientated marketing department. Through my practical experience in the 'marketing' world I find there are people out there who aid marketers in their quest to be more customer focused. These people aren't marketing consultants they are Product designers.

"Of course they help focus on customers! They design things to customer specification", this is not where it ends. As a hopeful employee in the near future, I have learnt some valuable information about facilities available, not presently residing under the heading 'marketing' that are appealing to the profit minded of us.

During a placement with PDG Ltd., a product development company (I believed I was there to help them with their marketing), I learnt the value of the services they provided to marketers. I believe this information will help me in the future as a marketer.

Product development Companies give marketers the tools to find out what their customers really want. Two main services that are offered are:

Prototypes: Testing your product out on your consumers before production is a valuable exercise. Product development companies help marketers achieve this. Replicas of the final product are produced at a relatively low cost to what could be lost through designing a product that will not sell. This is incorporated as part of the process of product development and therefore changes can be made (if necessary) after testing. The product Development Company therefore works with you to enable you to satisfy your customers.

It also helps on the sales side of a business. It is a tool for sales people to clinch sales before the product goes into mass production. Not only does this process save time it saves money as well (satisfying the boss and customers).

Promotion: Product development companies also help sell products. If marketers find themselves having difficulties with getting the middleman to push their product to the market a product development company may be the place to go to find a solution. If a marketer finds it difficult convincing a customer to place an order, a product development company can offer a service.

This service is a promotional video of what they want to sell. With the advances in technology, we can move away from going for the hard sell, with a 'great' speech prepared and let imagery speak for itself. By using CAD you can develop a computer animated video of what the final product will look like. It lets your clients move around the product and see it from all angles. It also lets you see it function. This is realistic imagery that can close a sale.

My studies of marketing at University here and in America have lead me to understand much of the Theory of Marketing, but it is not until you get involved in practical experience, do find out valuable marketing tools for yourself.

What If...?
by Nicola Plesnarowicz

What if we do this... This should work if we add this... No we should change this. This is what is expected of those working with the development and production of a product. You need to make a workable product to the best of your abilities, so you need to question everything. The production of electrical products requires products to meet standards. For an electronic product to work, the product needs to be tested in an EMC free environment. The results tell us whether your product will affect other products and whether other products will affect it. This leads to gaining C-marking.

So how do you produce the 'best' product without the costs of high priced tests, when a product is continuously updated through the development process? Every 'what if' has to be accounted with a test. This may be impossible and totally unreasonable to those out there who are not willing to pay £1000 a day for the use of a EMC free testing facility. Changes to the product may be continuous throughout development, how can these changes be tested for success at the cost of £1000 a day and valuable time.

John Foster (MD of PDG Ltd., Product Development Company) has found a cost-effective solution for those producing electronic products that require tests for acoustics and radio frequency in EMC and Anechoic environment. An ideal customer is a Mobile phone producer.

The product developed by PDG Ltd is a Mobile EMC and Acoustic Test Chamber. It allows manufactures of mobile phones to test the phones at various stages of production and development. 'What ifs' can now be tackled and developed into possible solutions. This makes the test chamber an interactive tool used throughout the development process.

The Mobile test chamber works in a simple comprehensive way. An Ariel stands at one end and the handset at the other end of the chamber. RF can be emitted at one end of the chamber. Resulting In the ability to measure the quality of the sound coming from the mobile phone (acoustics). With the same test chamber, mobile phone and time, noise is emitted into the test unit, where the phone receives the acoustic input and checks can be made on the RF output.

The chamber is mobile a small in comparison to the test 'rooms' that originally stand. The main benefit to the PDG Test Chamber is that it is the only test chamber that tests acoustics and RF. This is why it is ideally suited to those in the mobile phone development industry. The importance of these tests increases with the advances in technology where the mobile phone has to be workable and not just pretty. The tests are performed due to spurious radio waves in the air. These radio waves cannot interfere with the mobile phone when testing to see that it works sufficiently. The testing chamber does not allow for these radio waves to be in contact with the mobile phone.

The Mobile EMC and Acoustic test chamber has benefits for two types of users. For the development department it is a small compact unit with high RF shielding levels and acoustically inert. The Production line benefits from the ability to maintain quality through this quick and simple way of doing the test.

For multinational companies the access to this type of test unit is very beneficial. It allows the companies to maintain the same standards with the same test in different parts of the world. These results in easy comparisons of tests performed in China to tests performed in England.

What if the PDG test chamber wasn't available?

There are alternatives to using the mobile EMC and Acoustic test chambers. Performing first time tests at the end of production or through some stage of development using a NAMAS approved testing facility. This will approximately cost £1000 a day. The mobile EMC and acoustics testing chamber helps you achieve a 95% confidence that your mobile phone will pass the NAMAS tests the first time. Without doing any tests before, there is a risk of failure of the NAMAS test; this means £1000 until you get it right.

With consumer trends and the speed of technology mobile phones are continuously updated. This means more NAMAS approved testing facilities are required. Looking at how many times these facilities are required to keep on top of the market, a Mobile EMC and Acoustics Test Chamber could have been purchased. At £13,700 the mobile testing chamber may be worth the investment. The Mobile EMC and Acoustic test chamber allows immediate availability. This helps when a product is in the development stage and may need continually testing.

The first mobile EMC and Acoustic test chamber sold by PDG Ltd. was sold to a very large mobile phone company. They have the chambers in different parts of the world where the phones are produced. This allows them to standardise their testing on a global scale. The Mobile Test chambers have also allowed them to release floor space, which was previously required for testing facilities (in the form of a large room).

The Mobile EMC and Acoustics test chamber was developed five years ago, lead by John Foster (PDG Ltd). The chamber is a recognised success, through the Smart award received in 1995.

John Foster is the managing director of a Product development/design company. He deals with the 'What ifs' everyday. He values the importance of knowing that the decisions you have made while developing a product are the most effective ones. The Test Chamber that he designed, developed and produced is his way of helping others in the development deal with their 'what ifs' in a positive way.

The Far East Promise
by John Foster

• The designers had not fully appreciated the mounting and mechanical requirements for the components.
• The product designers had not taken into account manufacturing methods.
• The parts, identified by the designers, were not a standard in Taiwan. The Taiwanese, working to a fixed price, substituted larger but lower cost (and inferior quality) parts, thus changing the size (larger) and subsequently the shape of the product.
• The toolmakers modified the design, to accommodate the new internals and removed the subtle and not so subtle styling features.

• Concept designers are just that and should not incorporate engineering details, as this is a constraint on their creative flair. Concepts are ideas of form and function only.
• Concepts need to be developed using qualified engineers who will maintain the aesthetics whilst at the same time creating a part simple to manufacture and assemble.
• The production areas took the low cost route in making the concept realisable, by machining flats in place of styled features. The UK term for this is 'botch'.

• Ensure that the product is suitable for going offshore.
• Supply fully defined part and system data, which cannot be incorrectly interpreted.
• Ensure the supplier has a relevant history in your type of product.
• Make sure you have Intellectual Property Rights, preferably a patent and one that is territorial.
• Have a thorough knowledge of the materials you wish to use and any assembly techniques required for your application.
• Use an agent, who understands your requirements and your market.