On the radio I heard about a device that several students at Rice created to help diagnose anemia in the developing world. The device acts as a centrifuge to separate the blood into red blood cells and plasma in just 10 minutes and without the use of electricity.
The success of a new product, no matter how complex or innovative the technology involved, is directly tied to a lot of factors that have much less to do with science and much more to do with everything else.
A good designer must often think like a manufacturer. The question, “Can this be made?” is asked over and over again during the design process. Shortly thereafter, the question also becomes, “Can this be made cheaply?”
Designing medical devices can be an expensive undertaking. It can cost thousands of dollars for a traditional setup to make microfluidic chips or a centrifuge to isolate the components of a multi-constituent sample. Luckily, the creative minds that are focused on solving complex, technical problems don’t stop working when there’s a tight budget.
When you’re trying to solve a problem, it’s easy to just attack it with a bunch of ideas and hope something sticks. This might even work, but which idea was the real winner?
The economy has many businesses against the ropes, and the rest are tightening their belts in the face of uncertainty. However, you don’t need to completely halt your new product development (NPD) efforts. Here are five ways to spend less while keeping your pipeline moving.
Early stage gates in the pipeline should examine risk – technical risk, market risk, manufacturing risk, regulatory risk, supply chain risk, etc. A well managed pipeline has procedures in place to identify areas of risk and prioritize the risk for further assessment and evaluation. The process of assessing and addressing risk is an excellent, cost effective means of advancing the product pipeline in lean times.
