One of the key advantages of Agilian is that a project moves faster than with larger competitors and we know that getting to market reasonably quickly is important when launching your new product.
Agilian’s key benefit when it comes to speed is the ability to quickly get a risk analysis and a plan in place for addressing the challenges ahead. Going faster through the NPI process is generally possible, at the expense of higher costs and (typically) higher risks. We help you find the right balance and we execute it.
Our experience and our organization allow us to plan and engage actions in a way that will usually result in delivering your products to your customers earlier.
Agilian can turbo-charge your product launch
If you require a launch date that is as early as realistically possible, here are your options:
- Small factories (<100 people) may not have the technical ability or the network of suppliers that we have to tackle some of the challenges effectively.
- Large manufacturers (>1,000 people) often have impressive experience, but you need to ensure you get (and will keep getting) a lot of attention from their "heavyweight" project managers. If you are not one of their largest customers, you will work with a "B" team or a "C" team and your low-priority access to shared resources (R&D, quality, process engineering, ...) will slow progress down considerably.
- At Agilian, a senior technical project manager is involved in the day-to-day work until the start of tooling fabrication (DVT phase), where the organization changes and the different departments take more ownership of the project and gear up for mass production.
Review from a customer who used the fast track project service to bring an innovative electronic product to market sooner
Why we have the ability to move fast
Here are some of our in-house capabilities
- Our R&D team has successfully developed innovative products in several categories - wearables (earbuds, wristbands, headbands), battery energy storage, mobility (e-skateboards), indoor plant management, pet feeders, keyboards, and so on. Our team has experience working on various technologies and materials and is used to adapting to each customer’s needs.
- Our prototyping lab includes an SMT line, various types of 3D printers, various prototype cutting machines, etc.
- Our R&D team of 30 includes mechanical/structural, electronic, firmware, and app development engineers.
- We have set up our own testing lab, co-located with the R&D and manufacturing activities, so prototypes and production samples can be tested quickly for performance and reliability.
- Our in-house industrial designers are used to working with our mechanical engineers and our tooling workshop, for seamless communication.
This chart demonstrates the typical flow for a project that already has the working prototype for an electro-mechanical product of medium complexity.
Maximize your speed to market with a ‘Fast Track Project’
When time is of the essence we provide a “fast track” option for projects that need to optimize for speed, not for cost.
Some product development projects are well funded, need to go to market “as fast as possible”, and can often tolerate a high level of risk. We are happy to leverage our assets (R&D teams, prototyping equipment, plastic injection mold making, PCBA, process engineers, etc. all under the same roof) to speed a project up and we organize biweekly, weekly, or even daily meetings of the ‘core team’ who works on the project, to address the challenges as they occur and to keep a high pace.
A “fast track” project pays substantially higher fees but is given a higher priority and benefits from a higher level of project management attention and planning. Getting to market faster also typically involves taking extra risks.
This chart demonstrates the accelerated flow for a similar fast track project, typically achieved by increasing the project’s budget.
How much does the extra speed cost?
Every project is different, but as a general rule of thumb, a good metric is that to speed up the project by 50% (2 months instead of 3) it would cost double the usual amount due to the extra resources committed, to the extra fees for expediting testing, shipping, and so on.
Do note that this is just a rule of thumb and we help our customers plan for the schedule adjustments and the cost implications before any work gets started.
Is there a risk of skipping important activities to move quickly?
Yes and no.
On the one hand, working more quickly doesn’t mean we happily jump over important validations of the NPI process. Here are some examples of steps that can’t be skipped entirely:
- The Initial feasibility study ensures there is a good plan for the next phases; it sometimes lasts over a month in case many challenges and key questions need exploring.
- DFM aligns the product design with what can be done in mass production while hitting the cost, timing, and quality objectives.
- Reliability reviews and testing, safety reviews, and compliance testing, confirm that the product can be placed on the market.
On the other hand, there are many ways certain steps can be done in parallel or started earlier, at the expense of higher risk. Here are examples where a customer may be willing to take a risk:
- Starting tooling fabrication for some of the custom-designed parts before the whole product design is validated – starting with the parts that are less risky.
- Ordering the components for both the pre-production pilot run(s) and the first mass production batch at the same time.
- Not waiting for the results from compliance testing, or reliability testing (for products that are not highly hazardous in their nature).
On-site Co-Development with customers
Many factories don’t want their customers to be there for a while, but we love it!
We welcome customers who want to stay with us for a few weeks by providing an environment where a product development team has all they need at their fingertips: prototyping equipment, test equipment, design engineers, process and quality engineers, as well as a project manager to search for component suppliers, arrange visits to those suppliers, among other things.*
In addition, there’s also access to experienced managers for higher-level advice as needed.
*Our teams will assist customers to make progress fast, but please note that we don’t push engineers to work through a weekend or a holiday, for example. An exhausted engineer is not a good engineer.
Isn’t this the same as a hardware accelerator?
Our development immersion environment is all (and probably more) that an accelerator usually provides when it comes to product development and industrialization. We are not an ‘accelerator’ as we’re working with our customers who are not expecting funding from us in return for equity in their company. However, as with an accelerator, it is a great way to accelerate a project due to your access to our facilities and team. Our goal with this is to assist customers who want to speed up their projects.
What are the best times to come and work with us?
- During product development – you can work with our R&D teams, you see the prototypes being built quickly, you can review them and get them tested, etc. It’s also a great time to learn from visits to component suppliers and to make the right decisions based on your cost and risk tolerance.
- Once the tooling has been fabricated, at the time of building prototypes made of parts off tooling. In certain projects, getting the aesthetics and the touch & feel right is a challenge and that’s a great time to discuss with surface treatment suppliers, to approve golden samples, to refine the testing stations, and so on.
- When we prepare and run the small series in the pre-production phase – that’s when the process issues come up and need to be addressed, before the product is deemed to be ready for mass production.
What benefits do customers who come on-site to work with us on product co-development generally enjoy?
- You are effectively immersed at Agilian, working daily with your project manager, our skilled R&D engineers, etc.
- By being on-site, you get more first-hand information and can make better and faster decisions.
- You can keep track of the development work face-to-face with the people on our team doing that work, which naturally leads to faster iteration loops and faster progress.
In summary, how can I make faster progress with Agilian?
Fast track project, with higher fees
- You are given higher priority to leverage our assets (R&D teams, prototyping equipment, plastic injection mold making, PCBA, process engineers, testing lab, etc. all under the same roof) in exchange for higher fees.
- More intense project management with up to several calls per week, and more management attention.
- Careful planning and plenty of communication to take calculated risks.
On-site co-development with our teams
- You come to Shenzhen & Dongguan for a few weeks at critical periods of the project. You work with the project manager, the R&D engineers, the test technicians, critical suppliers, etc.
- You can keep track of the work face-to-face with the people doing that work, which naturally leads to faster iteration loops and faster progress.
- You will be able to get more first-hand information and make better decisions.
Talk To Us About Your Needs And Let’s Plan For The Right Approach
