Hello Fastlaners

[furiousJ]

Hello from Montreal my name's Furious and im an ideaholic. I have so many ideas (many of which others have actualised and become very successful) and now I am working to figure out this process thing. I am a constant learner read about 10 books a year and constantly on forums and listening to audiobooks. Right now my favorite book is M.F.L. (reading it for a second time in 14 days).

For the last 2 years I Have been working on a physical product in a changing market. I found a legit need and started process and found myself way over my head . due to changes in market need and my beliefs in the future I decided to drop the idea. But using fastlane thinking (globally and unselfish) has brought me back to the idea for a round 2 . I will share more in the coming weeks if anyone is interested.

Lastly a BIG thanks to M.J. for creating this forum, and to all who stick around to help us "up and comers."

 

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[OldFaithful]

Welcome to the forum. Yes, there are those of us interested in physical products. Please post and let us know what you learned along the way!

Best wishes!

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Welcome my friend, thank you for the intro.

For the last 2 years I Have been working on a physical product in a changing market.

Why 2 years? Is the product that difficult? If so, that means it could be a great barrier to entry.

 

[furiousJ]

Welcome to the forum. Yes, there are those of us interested in physical products. Please post and let us know what you learned along the way!

Best wishes!

Welcome my friend, thank you for the intro.

Thanks for the warm welcome! Ill gladly share what I have learned along the way. Congrats on the new book Mj , i'll be picking up a copy for my bookshelf I have a few family members that could use a perspective overhaul.

Why 2 years? Is the product that difficult? If so, that means it could be a great barrier to entry.

I wasn't clear in my post. I actually spent a year on the product,and a year basically wondering "what if."

They say If you want to climb kilimanjaro you'll get there faster if you are at base camp then if you are at the north pole. I was closer to the north pole. I had no experience in anything related whatsoever (design,mfg,tech,sales,mrktng). The closest I have done was when i was 8 yrs old going door to door with a rake so that i could buy a videogame or something. I'm quite sure a skilled executor could have done what i did in 6 months or less.

I Knew when i started that it would be a longshot at best, but my whole life at that point was a "ftm", so I had to give it a shot. I Had a Work accident that would prevent me from working for 6 months to a year, and realised that my "safe" career in constrution wasn't so safe at all. In fact It was the least safe of all careers. Thanks mom and dad for the advice. next year ill try underwater welding And join big sea fishing rigs and i may get a job safety testing nuclear reactors. Look at the stats a construction worker is more then 20 times more likely to die on the job then a policeman. Its a fact. But everyone worships police for their dangerous job. when in fact it is quite a safe occupation.

Back to subject It was a product that needed to be redesigned from ground up for an emerging market . So I first had to see if it could be done. I started doing research and everybody I spoke to said it couldn't be done, but I didn't accept that. In fact it made me curious (I've been told a lot of things couldn't be done. and it was never true) . So I set out to prove them wrong I took the product broke it down to what i needed it to do. I found innovative technology that could solve my problem up to 80% while not perfect (perfect is impossible due to physics) still better then anything else available.

I could only find a steady supply for 3 of the components. One of the components I could only find through random sellers on ebay and the supply was always changing. And one of the components I would need to have manufactured for me.

So I started to design the product anyway. Traditional manufacturing techniques would have been prohibitively expensive. So I had to find another way to approach that as well. I found a company who could do the small numbers I wanted, without initial tooling costs, but each design iteration would cost hundreds if not thousands.

Still on a budget, to minimize design costs I decided to make a few prototypes myself to discover any flaws that could be fix before sending it in. Its one thing to design a product it's another thing to design a product for manufacturing. I had to study their manufacturing techniques and design my product for this particular method. But a little change in the product could mean that this manufacturing technique is no longer more efficient, and would have to find another way. So you have to design and redesign, and then redesign that too.

As I was finalizing my design and trying to set up a website. I got the news that Industry standards in my country would be changing, and my product would no longer be necessary.This was bittersweet as I didn't think the product should need to exist anyway.

So now I'm looking at the global market And I am redesigning the product simpler and cheaper in a way that suits the market better.

Trying to design a product, get a website up, and learn branding and marketing at the same time while watching my budget disappear was enormous amount of pressure. I tell people it's like this " Imagine the last second shot clock in an NBA game,now imagine that kind of pressure for weeks straight." Its the same doubt and fear, ill give it everything I got but will my shot miss?

So that was my year. Thanks again for the welcome, this place is awesome !

 

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[OldFaithful]

Traditional manufacturing techniques would have been prohibitively expensive. So I had to find another way to approach that as well. I found a company who could do the small numbers I wanted, without initial tooling costs, but each design iteration would cost hundreds if not thousands.

If you can explain without revealing too much...what was the "traditional" manufacturing process and what was the new process you used?

There are several points from your post that have piqued my curiosity.

Thanks!

 

[furiousJ]

If you can explain without revealing too much...what was the "traditional" manufacturing process and what was the new process you used?

Yea sure My original designs required a custom project enclosure.

Traditional manufacturing methods are

1.Thermal/vacuum Forming - Takes a sheet of plastic heats it and bends it over a mold using vacuum to pull the sheet to the object.
2.Injection Molding - Make a mold and fill the cavity with melted plastic pellets. Cost $ 2,000-100,000 for the mold, design may be extra or included.

My design would not have suited Thermal forming, And Injection molding works better where large numbers are required, and can require a long turnaround time.


Other options

1. Repurpose . There are ready made enclosures that can be customized to suit your needs. If you can find the right size this is a very good option.
2. 3d printing . Can be good for small quantities ,or prototypes,but has Limited capabilities and product is not always marketable quality.
3. Tool-less manufacturing. This is where things get interesting. They take a plastic sheet and treat it like sheet metal,Cutting out any openings with CNC, bending it on a brakepress ,they also offer painting and silkscreen for design and logos.


Each option has different design requirements,benefits and drawbacks.

I wanted quick turnaround with small numbers at first even if unit price was higher. My first choice was to find an enclosure that could be repurposed. I looked for weeks but I couldn't find anything that worked. My design wasn't a good candidate for 3d printing/ or thermal forming. Eventually I stumbled upon a few websites that offered tool less manufacturing, and decided that was the way to start, and later on if I have 5000 orders then i can go for injection molding.
Hope that answers your questions. Now i'm back to work

 

[OldFaithful]

Traditional manufacturing methods are

1.Thermal/vacuum Forming - Takes a sheet of plastic heats it and bends it over a mold using vacuum to pull the sheet to the object.
2.Injection Molding - Make a mold and fill the cavity with melted plastic pellets. Cost $ 2,000-100,000 for the mold, design may be extra or included.

My design would not have suited Thermal forming, And Injection molding works better where large numbers are required, and can require a long turnaround time.

Other options

1. Repurpose . There are ready made enclosures that can be customized to suit your needs. If you can find the right size this is a very good option.
2. 3d printing . Can be good for small quantities ,or prototypes,but has Limited capabilities and product is not always marketable quality.
3. Tool-less manufacturing. This is where things get interesting. They take a plastic sheet and treat it like sheet metal,Cutting out any openings with CNC, bending it on a brakepress ,they also offer painting and silkscreen for design and logos.

Each option has different design requirements,benefits and drawbacks.

Good explanation, thanks. I look forward to your next update!

 

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[furiousJ]

just wanted to do a quick update for those interested.

I spent the last 2 weeks redesigning my product .The prototype will be ready tonight, got it done through 3dhubs (really cool service , with a lot of good info). I will spend the next week getting my site up and running, taking product photos and setting up on amazon. It's exciting to know that in a few weeks I may be affecting thousands of lives for the better. I gotta get back to work, I will keep you guys posted on my progress.