FAQs
Manufacturing
This question is typically answered with adding resources. Prior to engaging into the multiple steps required to acquire employees or capital equipment, an analysis of the current business plan and goals is an absolute requirement. You can then create efficiencies in your production by introducing automation or additional employees to all or part of your floor. The most long-term solution requires DFM or designing your part for manufacturing. This process may take some time but in the long run it will pay off tremendously not only in increased production but also reduced cost
Planning a manufacturing facility can be a large undertaking but it does not need to be. GS Enterprises will work with you and your team to layout and plan a manufacturing facility for your current needs to growth demands and expansion in the coming years. Warehousing, inventory, logistics and packaged product movements are key factors as is the design and position of an assembly workstation, 5S and Lean manufacturing requirements.
A Manufacturing Operations Plan is a key tool in the growth and development of your product. Having a solid plan with phases sets you up to obtaining milestones and setting goals for staff and departments. As phases are fulfilled others are started. This allows for the company to pivot to meet demands of stakeholders and the evolution of the product itself.
There are several ways to increase efficiency or productivity in a manufacturing facility. The simple answer is to increase resources but in most cases, this isn’t the most prudent course of action. Adopting a Lean Manufacturing program or 5S solution will help in conjunction with product and component handling. One of the most important lessons to learn with manufacturing efficiency is to listen to your people and make them part of the solution. This will not only increase morale but set a culture of teamwork between the worker and management.
Engineering
There are a few simple steps to improving part quality. Selecting the right vendors is CRUCIAL to the success of your production. The wrong vendors can critically impact functionality, flow, process, and cost in your manufacturing production. Risk management with a solid DMFEA process is extremely important and can save time and cost.
DFM or Design for Manufacturing is critical in the repeatability and process for manufacturing any product or part. Many organizations make the costly mistake of skipping this step, but it is crucial in reducing complexity of a part and the ability to produce the part over and over. This exercise also in most cases reduces cost of the part and leads to cost savings from the vendor as well as internal handling of the part.
First, you should protect your idea or invention with a patent search and potential provisional patent. This gives you time to work with an engineering group or your internal staff to look at further designing the prototype for manufacturing through a DFM process as well as, Supply Chain Logistics Design. Working with stakeholders in the field regarding the viability of the product in an enterprise solution will go a long way to gaining a revenue stream that supports growth of the product and subsequent vertically integrated products to come.
A great way to reduce cost on any product is to perform a DFM process and re-engineer components of the product to accept other forms of manufacturing media. Typically, these are symbiotic with volume increases to keep ROI funds at a reasonable return.
Design faults can be hard to find. DFMEA work and life testing are critical in uncovering design flaws in a product before it is mass produced and results in a recall program with costly consequences. Customer service complaint trending is another way to identify issues in a product design that is already in the market. These trending reports will establish specific testing to be performed to identify design flaws.
End user feedback is essential to confirm that your product meets or exceeds a consumer or end user need. Changes in market demand may drive changes to your product. Stay up to date with the market trends and needs.
Life testing, Risk assessment, Vibratory and Environmental testing is key to proving that a design of a product is solid and withstands its use in the market. Knowing the life span of a product is important to understand so you can setup proper testing platforms and goals to reach.
This can be a stressful time in any company to correct a design issue in a product quickly. Parallel path engineering is a perfect way to accomplish this in a timely manner with inside or outside resources. It can be tricky to manage but it typically results in a superior correction to the product.
Business Development
Absolutely. This will give you knowledge on whether you immediately have an infringement issue or if you will have competition for your product. This is crucial information to have before investing funds and resources down a path that you may need to pivot from later.
Patents can be expensive and hard on budgets, but sometimes necessary to protect the intellectual property for your business. Patents do bring value to the business. If funds are not available a provisional patent is a fraction of the cost and gives you 12 months to decide to file for a patent or not.
There are many steps in creating a product:
- Ideas that lead to a prototype
- Design and Life Testing are required
- Risk Assessment of the product to determine functionality
- Prototype conversion to Pre-Production
- DFM process to enable larger scaled production
- Refinements are reviewed with stakeholders feedback. Product design is stable and functionality is reached.
Growing a team can be a huge undertaking especially when it needs to happen quickly. The key is to know what resources you need. Having a current and future organizational chart that is updated from time to time gives you a roadmap to knowing where to put resources that will give you the most efficient growth potential.
Having a reliable GAP analysis and Business plan for short and long term will help reduce the roller coaster effect. Solid planning across all departments will ensure even growth across all business units of the company so the business can grow symbiotically and quickly.
This may sound like a difficult task, but it truly does not have to be. There are some components that are just not produced here in the US at reasonable costs. If your product meets certain volume requirements, then vendors can be selected to build components for your product locally. There are also locations around the globe that manufacture to certain ITAR regulations that allow for a made in the US designation of the overall product assembly.
Product reliability and Customer Service are two of the most important milestones to achieve when bringing a new product to market. Setting proper expectations to the end user and partners you choose can be equally important. What is your product designed to do and does it meet or exceed those expectations?
Vendors
Finding the right vendor for your company seems like a daunting task at times but a critical exercise to realizing a robust product with a long-term partner relationship. Asking the right questions and scheduling quality audits for operational efficiencies and excellence at the vendors facilities should be a common practice and integrated into your operational “checklist”. Selecting your preferred vendor may not always mean the least expensive solution but having a true partner will always prove successful in the long term.
Word of mouth and networking is a great way to find vendors as well as trade shows that cater to the specific process you are looking for. Remember that you are looking for a partnership not a vendor relationship.
As we all know the past few years have made it difficult to secure raw materials and components in a reasonable amount of lead time. Duplicity programs for manufacturing vendors and component vendors is an absolute must. With a stable product design this will impact the flow of materials to your production line in a positive manner.
Culture
Great morale is critical to the success of any organization and unfortunately underestimated in how much it impacts the success of a company overall. Remember, without your employees you do not have a company or product. There is a very thin line between employee satisfaction and the bottom line. Positive morale can be jeopardized with a series of events if not watched closely. Morale must always be part of the solution.
Building and promoting from within is always a win-win situation for any company that is growing and expanding. This strategy not only allows for huge morale boosts but creates a fundamental culture of teamwork and competitiveness that shows rewards for hard work and initiative. It is important that internal jobs are posted for all to view with timelines and tasks for applying. This will also help drive the company organizationally with a framework of low-level, mid-level, and high-level management to allow for the ability to pivot to meet market demand without sacrificing service and quality.
Simply stated “Be Involved” there is no greater motivator than spending time with everyone in your company. Walk through the building daily, park in the back of the building and not the front, learn everyone’s name and listen to what they have to say. These seem like small things to do but you will gain and earn respect from everyone on your team. Always remember you hired top talent in your company to do specific tasks and they are all valuable.
Quality
A gap analysis is an essential practice to use to ensure the health of any company. By performing this analysis, it will reveal deficiencies, missing process, communication or resources in several areas or in between departments. In this new world of remote work, a GAP analysis is vital to ensure a forward momentum and growth at its highest level.
Having a well-trained and strong customer service team along with user testing feedback is crucial to keeping product failures or returns at a minimum. Complaints or returns must be monitored and reviewed constantly to ascertain if the product design or functionality needs to be revisited.
Great customer service is an extremely process driven part of a business where KPI’s are essential in determining how your product is performing in the perspective of the end user. It is imperative to listen to end user complaints and not be dismissive of them. Successful reporting and analyzing this information will put you on the path to great customer service.
An AQL or acceptable quality level is basically the worst quality level that is acceptable for a batch of components. This allows your inspection team to test a percentage of a lot or batch of parts and if rejected parts are below that level then the batch is considered good to proceed through the system. If it is over that level, then additional testing will be needed. This enables a higher throughput in your incoming inspection department with less resources. You must work with your engineering staff and vendor to determine your AQL levels.
Logistics
Distribution networks and Logistics are often overlooked when growing or expanding a product nationally or internationally. There are numerous ways to hasten products to end users. 3PL services to LTL and FTL transportation methods. Having a short, and long-term plan for growth will help with these roadblocks before they inhibit sales and revenue.
3PL or third-party logistics are used everyday all over the country in all types of industries. If you do not plan to have your own fleet of delivery vehicles, then a 3PL solution may be for you. These delivery resources can be delivered dock to dock or directly to a customer’s residence. There are multi levels of these services as well. Sometimes called “final mile” or “white glove service” these partners can deliver, assemble and install directly into customers' facilities or homes. This is a great way to expand your business fast into all areas of the country. GS Enterprises can help you set up these services for your products.
Expansion of the distribution network of your company is a big step in the growth of a company. Depending on your products’ timing, from order to delivery you may need to expand and create a distribution network. GS Enterprises can set up a Hub and Spoke model where you identify key main focused locations or “Hubs” and then gradually over time create smaller distribution networks called “spokes” until you fill entire regions of support for your deliveries. A hybrid fleet or 3PL carriers can help obtain great geography coverage as you expand.