With the advent of digital technology, the electronics design industry has taken enormous leaps and has brought a 360 degrees of change in the user experience. The electronics sector has been playing and manipulating with electricity from time immemorial and has invented many complex user devices. The process of electronic development of any electronic device is almost similar to a normal engineering product.
Electronic Product Design services start with ideation and market research. Further, it is followed by securing funding and developing the product’s regulatory plan. The next phase concentrates on product design, verification, and validation which require a lot of expertise among the designers and developers. Finally, the company focuses on marketing and sales to boost the product’s acceptability among its customers. Here’s a step by step guide for the Electronic Product Design of an electronic device.
Ideation
The first step of the design and development of an electronic device is to establish an idea about the concept and application of the electronic product. Developers and designers focus on the user’s needs and brainstorm about the next big thing that they want to have in the customer’s life. Idea generation is a very complex task and could consume a lot of time for establishing an idea of a master product.
Market Research
The probability of getting a wonderful idea is very high but such is not the case for its success. Thorough market research is required before finalizing the product. Many developers produce products that are similar to the already available products in the market. In such a case, it becomes a lost commodity and does not generate enough revenue. Developers should note that their product should either be a novel idea or must substitute the other similar products in the market.
Project Timeline and Costs
The project timeline is an important factor that progresses your project with time. It includes the identification of the scheduled future milestones in the project design and development. Significant time should be given to each phase of the project development and developers should focus on achieving the targets within the pre-identified boundaries.
Project Cost is also a crucial factor while developing an electronic product. Each phase of product development requires a significant amount to deliver a result. Businesses should keep track of their finances and should signal flags when the cost overruns the pre decided budget.
Prototype Creation
One of the significant steps in electronic device design and development is the creation of the product prototype. It is done to identify the problems in the product and thereby improving its features. This is a great way to troubleshoot the hurdles that the developers would attend in the future. Prototype creation offers the visualization of a realistic representation of the final product.
Funding and Recruitment
A large chunk of money is required to deliver a product in the market on a large scale. Businesses always have a seed investment to develop their product but they can always go for angel investors and venture capitalists as per their required needs. Angel investors are the investors who provide capital at the start of business development in exchange for ownership while the venture capitalists provide funds for early-stage and emerging companies and provide their expert knowledge to the management.
Recruitment of expert staff is essential for the scale-up of the venture. Electronic device development is complex work and thorough practical knowledge is a prerequisite for successful device development. Businesses should focus on their human resources and should offer essential research and training to their staff before the actual product design and development.
Regulatory Plan
Every electronic device is different and has a specific regulatory plan. Developers should ensure that they create and circulate the specific guidelines before the design and development of the product. These guidelines should have the entire how-to and procedural step by step guide in the development of the products. It should all the pros and cons of a particular step so that the staff becomes familiar with the implementation procedures.
QMS implementation
Implementation of the electronic quality management system offers an advantage in developing standard products without any errors. It ensures that each product has followed the standard government and industrial guidelines and doesn’t possess any harm to the customer.
Design and Development Planning
This phase is the one where a business idea is transformed into reality. Proper planning is required to document and review the design controls. A checklist should be developed and marked each time while progressing into the next step. It ensures the progress of electronic product development is in order without any back draws. A good plan includes breaking down the timeline and description of the activities along with offering the responsibility to a particular supervisor for each activity.
Design Inputs and Outputs
Design inputs are the basis of an electronic device and the quality of the device is dependent on the quality of the design inputs. Any future problems regarding the quality of the device pins down to the design inputs, therefore designers should focus on the standard and quality of the product design with all pros and cons.
Design outputs are the ingredients for the development of the product. It includes manufacturing instructions, specifications, and drawings of a particular product.
Design Verification and Validation
The main goal of the design verification is to ensure that the design inputs are as per the design outputs. It involves product testing on various software to ensure the material strength, product age, and fatigue level of the product. Design verification offers the physical value of the product and hence is a crucial factor in the product development process.
Design validation ensures that your product is safe for the end-user and has gone through a rigorous process of various testing and guidelines.
Design Reviews and Changes
Constant monitoring and review are necessary to ensure the compliance of all the guidelines during the product development process. Design reviews should be taken from all the multiple sources in terms of design, manufacturing, quality, marketing, and regulatory compliance.
The evaluation of the design review is followed by identifying the genuine problems and approving the changes in the electronic device.
Risk Management
Risk management is defined as the logical development and implementation of a plan to deal with potential; future losses. The goal of risk management in the electronics industry is to manage the losses and protect the value of its products. It ensures the safety of the user during the working of the product and thereby improving the quality of life of end-users.
Risk Planning
Risk planning involves defining and describing the use of the product. It includes the description of risk management activities, roles, and responsibilities of the supervisors. At last, the methods of risk control are defined in order to mitigate future risks.
Build Supply Partnerships
Businesses require partners to extend their products and services to the market. The management should ensure that they choose the right partners to promote their products. The partners could be contract manufacturers, consultants, service providers, or distributors, etc. It is also essential to complete regular audits of the partners to avoid any fraudulent activities. The selection of the partners should be based on the experience and knowledge of the market.
Product Registration
The registration of the product is crucial before bringing the product in the market. The product is registered with various agencies to assure that the product is compliant with all the mandatory guidelines.
Product Launch
The end goal of any business is to sell their product in the market. It requires a concrete marketing plan to promote and sell the product in the market. It requires email marketing, social media posts, and extensive advertisements to assure the acceptability of the product in the market. The management should ensure that the launch of the product should create considerable hype and show among the customers.
Setting up a distribution network
A significant aspect of product delivery is the creation of the distribution network. It assures the ease in product distribution to the customers. It helps in offering marketing support and is useful in organizing events such as conferences and exhibitions.
Post Launch Surveillance
Once the product is available to the customers in the market, the businesses have the responsibility to monitor the performance of their electronic device. Post-market surveillance is essential to check any of the drawbacks or problems that the customers possibly be facing.
Customer Feedback
Customer feedback is an important aspect to progress any business. It helps in improving the delivery of services and products. It can assure the level of customer satisfaction among the customers. Responsiveness to customer feedback ensures that the management values the opinion of the customers and thereby enhancing customer experience. It also ensures faster delivery of the information to the customers and improves customer retention.
The end goal of any electronic device is to provide a next-generation customer experience to its users. The businesses are focusing not only on enhancing customer retention but also on the sustainability of their product by following cyclic practices.
Also Read: How Rapid Prototyping Helps You Design And Develop Products Quickly