Stories & Features
How We Partner: Our Product Development Process
Sep 21, 2022
by
IDEX Health & Science
From Proposal to Launch, We Get You to Market Faster with Less Risk
We deliver quality technology on time to secure your success in highly competitive markets. The more complex a system gets, the more complicated the process required to build it becomes. We simplify product development with our disciplined process that aligns our expertise with your business objectives to take you from conception to market easier.
New Project Proposal Guide
The first step in any new product development is a New Project Proposal. View our New Project Proposal Guide for tips on how to create successful proposal. Once a proposal is submitted, reviewed, and deemed a good fit for our team, the development process begins.
1. Business Phase
During the Business Phase, the business justification is developed using input from the customer. At this time, the project team is also formed and initial project tasks are launched, including:
Project Meetings – Define the project team, then appoint the meeting leader and meeting facilitator, to schedule, monitor, take minutes, and keep meetings on track. Also choose which team members will receive copies of the minutes.
Develop Scope – Develop initial internal scope, timeline, and budget for the project.
- Requirements are reviewed by the teams to confirm alignment. There may be several iterations early in the project based on complexity of the effort.
- Initial verification/validation requirements are captured to ensure test equipment and methods are considered.
- Initial risk assessment is documented.
- Determine how often the teams will meet to drive action items and task alignment.
Define and Plan – Set up general project information including top-level part numbers, import/export compliance tasks, and confirm that NDAs are on file, and so forth.
Technical Assessment – A technical assessment is conducted based on the detailed information documented in the previous phase. The duration of this task will be determined by the complexity of the project/product requirements, such as:
- Determining the needs for technology development, prototyping, testing, and scale-up.
- Considering materials, time, tools, fixtures, and equipment that may be required.
2. Feasibility Phase
Once the project passes the Business Phase, the Feasibility Phase starts. The IDEX Health & Science team will begin assessing technical solutions or building blocks to ensure there is confidence in proceeding to more detailed design and prototyping work. At this time, iteration of concepts shared between teams should be expected. Based on the teams’ efforts, the product requirements and specifications are reviewed again to ensure quality and accuracy of the requirement set.
There may be Concept Development Units (CDU) exchanged between teams to supplement the technical risk assessment with actual data. This may be required to reduce risk of assigning unachievable specifications to functional product requirements before entering the Design Phase.
3. Design Phase
The Design Phase integrates the technical concepts into a prototype design that will be tested in accordance with the agreements reached by the project teams earlier in the development process.
IDEX Health & Science applies standard work tools such as Design for Excellence (DFX), finite element analysis, FMEA, and tolerance analysis to optimize prototype performance before investing in formal test units. If testing in the application is required for final approval of the design specification, IDEX Health & Science will provide prototypes used to verify product performance.
Production concepts and tooling are also considered during the Design Phase and may require significant parallel development with product design. The functional roles work collaboratively to minimize the time required to release the product to production as much as possible. There are times when the equipment required to verify product performance can be transferred into production after proper qualification in the Pre-Production Phase.
4. Pre-Production Phase
Once design is complete, the production cell is installed and qualified, and includes any equipment required to support assembly and test. Pilot runs and Pre-Production Unit (PPU) runs are completed to ensure production processes and materials will yield units that meet verification standards defined by the project team. Production Verification Testing (PVT) is conducted to confirm product quality and the Product Manager may provide a summary of the PPU builds, as well as testing conducted in the application, before release. After the project exits the Pre-Production Phase, forecasted production unit volumes can be ordered.
Market Launch
If a project is market facing the final stage will be Market Launch. This phase is used to help us reach sales goals, obtain customer feedback, and evaluate other targets. Once a creative brief is filled out, the team will set goals and KPIs for the launch. Next, they will review a list of potential marketing activities that align with those goals. These can be anything from brochures, videos, advertising, and social media strategies. From there, content and materials are built out and a calendar is set for launch. As the launch progresses, metrics will be analyzed to ensure we are reaching our set KPIs. It’s important to pivot quickly if something isn’t generating the expected results. Once the launch is completed the team will check in on metrics and created a continued promotions plan.
The Benefits of the IDEX Health & Science Product Development Process:
- One consistent process across all of IH&S
- No hand-offs: one project manager & team
- Increased rigor up-front (planning)
- Budgeting/CAR approval up-front
- Increased testing thoroughness and tool use
- Easy access to standard tools and forms
- Allows for technology development tracking
- Improved management and communication tools