At Agilian, we follow a very specific 6-phase new production introduction process to get your new product from concept to mass production as smoothly as possible. This keeps the project organized, under control by you, transparent so you know what is happening throughout, and on time, on budget, and delivers products at your desired quality level.
It may surprise you to hear that a lot of Chinese manufacturers (or those from other Asian countries) don’t follow such a structured process.
Why does a solid NPI process matter?
Bringing a new product to market is a complex process and without structured phases, it’s easy to miss important tasks (either by accident or by design) and harder to control your risks.
For example, a typical manufacturer may wish to do a minimum of prototype testing and validation and skip the pilot run in order to get the products manufactured and shipped ASAP so they can get paid…this, of course, exponentially increases your risks of receiving poor quality or unsafe products.
The NPI phases we follow can be seen here (this is for electro-mechanical products that will be produced in large quantities as you can see, but it doesn’t differ much for smaller production runs):
You can see that there are a lot of different activities and milestones involving different teams throughout the process and it can be hard to follow for entrepreneurs and SMEs who’re new to manufacturing in China (or elsewhere).
In the spirit of transparency, we created an episode on the Sofeast group’s podcast where our Executive VP Renaud explains the NPI process, its structure, and the benefits of using it. In particular, he outlines the 6 phase NPI process in order:
- Document specifications & requirements
- Feasibility study / Proof of Concept
- Prototyping (EVT)
- Creating and testing tooling (DVT)
- Pilot run & pre-production (PVT)
- Mass production
Listen to the episode right here 👇👇👇
Related posts
All of the following links are relevant to the NPI process:
- Why A Pilot Run On A New Product, Before Mass Production, Is Very Helpful
- The New Product Development Process in Electronics
- New Product Development In China: 4 Tips To Go Faster
- How Reliability Testing Is Critical To Obtaining Great Mass-Produced Products
- The Conundrum of Investing in Tooling Before a Final Prototype
- Why A Feasibility Study With Suppliers Saves Time & Prevents Issues
