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A version of this article
appears in the June issue of
Product Design and Development
magazine.
Like any great mystery, the question
of who killed a product's quick
time-to-market is often accompanied
by a lot of finger pointing-- with
the design engineer as the most
likely suspect. But in all my years
of working in new product
development (NPD) and dealing with
design engineers, marketing VP's,
marketing managers, manufacturing
engineers and sustaining engineers,
I can hardly remember a time when it
was the design engineer that was
really the choke point of the new
product development (NPD) process.
Put another way, it is most often
not the process of engineering
design that screws things up.
Well, yes, there have been times
when the developed device didn't
work, or BLEW UP (literally - and in
front of the board of directors
too!), but in my experience, design
engineers are rarely the cause of a
major hold up of a project. They are
often BLAMED for the holdup
(especially if it doesn't work, or
blows up), but the design
engineering process is rarely the
critical time killer. I suppose that
the bulk of this audience would have
no argument with this notion. So, if
the design engineer is usually not
the big stumbling block for Time to
Market, then, whose fault is it and
what can the design engineer do
about it?
Mike identifies ways to speed up
time-to-market. (Read
more...)
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New Toy!
Simulation Software Offers A
New Perspective
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PCDworks is proud to announce an
exciting new prototyping capability
with the addition of COMSOL
simulation software to its
repertoire.
COMSOL is a very high end
multiphysics analysis package which
allows us to perform a wide range of
highly detailed analysis on the
design solutions we generate.
Currently, we use a mechanical CAD
package (Solidworks) to generate 3D
models of parts and assemblies, and
a simple analysis package to do
some calculations on the designs,
such as checking how much stress
there is on a part, how much force
it will be subjected to, and where
it will break.
(Read
More...)
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Join PCDworks at PDMA Conference
Sign Up for Mike's Full-Day
Workshop
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Have you ever wished you had better
brainstorming and product
development skills? If so, you'll
want to sign up for Mike's workshop
at the September
PDMA (Product Development Managers
Association) conference.
It promises to be a hands-on
experience where participants will
both learn and practice new skills
to improve the output of
brainstorming sessions and early
product development. The full-day
session will be held in Orlando, FL,
on Sept. 17, 2008, and will be part
of the annual PDMA conference.
Mike and other PCDworks team members
will also be attending the show and
hosting a booth at the vendor fair.
We hope you'll stop by to visit and
talk about how we can add value to
your new product development
efforts.
During the workshop, participants
will learn new skills through
lectures and discussions, and will
immediately get a chance to apply
and hone those skills through
exercises and group analysis. The
lessons on brainstorming will
include how to create a strong
problem definition, how to maximize
serendipity (in other words - how to
increase your chance of 'stumbling'
onto a winner design), and how to
generate unique concepts. The
session will also cover early
product development strategies for
choosing the "best" designs to
pursue, and creating a plan for fast
proof of concept and market
feasibility. |
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Be a Guest Contributor
Do you have some interesting
technology news to share? We welcome
guest contributions to our
newsletter, so if you come across
breakthrough technology or weird
science, send an email to
mike@technologywonk.com. We'll
make sure to attribute it to you. |
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