1. Use Resources Efficiently

Getting a full time, highly trained engineer to do everything in the product development process may move the project along faster, but it can be more expensive. Instead of paying an engineer to perform every task, such as testing a prototype or drafting a report, maybe a lab technician or college intern can run specific parts of the test and write up the final report under the engineer’s supervision. What they cost in inefficiency they often make up for in reduced overhead.

2. Plan Ahead

Nothing wastes time and money more than having to do things over. There’s certainly plenty of iteration required in product development, but making mistakes by rushing or failing to prepare for likely problems should be avoided by taking the time to plan ahead.

3. Mind Your Perspective

While working on a project, it’s easy to get caught up in the details. At least once a week, step back to look at the big picture. Consider what you (and others) are working on and where it lays on the path between the design specification and the finished product. Is your team working efficiently? Are you spending time on minutia too early in the project? Adding (and rebuilding) the draft angles and fillets required for injection-molding are often unnecessary when using most rapid prototyping techniques.

4. Look Off-The-Shelf

Using commercial off-the-shelf parts (COTS) is a great way to reduce the schedule and cut development costs. Designing products takes time, so if someone has already spent the time and money to build a sub-system, try to take advantage. Look for at least one more supplier so you have options if they raise the price, discontinue the product, or don’t meet expectations as a vendor. Sole-source products should be avoided as much as possible, but you can spare yourself some pain by purchasing stock well ahead of time or negotiating a contract with the supplier. Of course, don’t squeeze a square peg in a round hole just to save a buck, either. If you can’t find anything to meet the requirements, and changing the requirements is out of the question, it’s time to design it yourself.

5. Conserve Energy

We have a responsibility to be environmentally conscious, but efforts to that effect can also make financial sense. Reducing the power requirements for your product can decrease the size, weight, and cost of your power supply. It can also increase the battery life for a product used in the field. Choosing the same materials or components within a product or across product lines makes recycling easier, but it also means you can save money by purchasing raw materials in higher quantities.

Keep your pipeline moving. Photo credit: Steve Knight

You can save money and continue working with a smaller budget by implementing stage gates early in the product pipeline to 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 evaluate them. The process of assessing and addressing risk is an excellent, cost effective means of advancing the product pipeline in lean times.

• Technical risk is assessed with basic proof of concept prototypes and technology research that address specific aspects of the product that are considered high risk.
• Market risk is assessed with targeted market studies, limited voice of the customer (VOC) interviews, and other information gathering efforts focused on reducing risk. For medical products, preliminary research to understand the reimbursement environment for the product may be of particular importance.
• Regulatory risk can be minimized through careful planning of the submittal process and preliminary discussions with regulatory personnel. For products that will be launched into regulated environments (medical, nuclear, etc), regulatory acceptance of the product is critical to product success.
• Supply chain risk is assessed through detailed conversations with manufacturing vendors and suppliers. Risk may be significantly minimized by reducing the number of “single-point failures” required for a product such as a sole-sourced component or highly-specialized service. Trusted vendors often prove to be invaluable resources later in the NPD process and should be involved as early as possible.

The risk assessment phase of NPD is absolutely critical to maintaining the health of the new product pipeline and preventing unpleasant surprises late in the game when a product is almost ready for release. By attacking and reducing risk early, unfeasible projects are eliminated earlier in the pipeline and feasible projects become easier to forecast. It is also a relatively inexpensive phase, as compared to the balance of the development process. In weak economic times, focusing on this early phase can filter multiple concepts, preparing them for the more costly process of advancing them down the pipeline when the economy improves.