Optimize Time Spent in Design to Boost New Product Introduction

Key Takeaways:

• Early delays in the design and product ideation phase can result in costly impacts across the NPI process, affecting sourcing, production, and launch times
• aPriori accelerates project delivery, cuts costs, and ensures timely market entry for competitiveness and profitability

The Full Article:

Time is of the essence when designing innovations and initiating new product introduction (NPI) processes. Delays in the initial design phase lead to cascading, costly impacts across the NPI process, affecting sourcing, manufacturing, and product launch times.

Late time-to-market (TTM) outcomes not only undermine manufacturers’ competitiveness but also hinder their profitability, especially when developing complex, multi-component products.

Discover how the adage “time is money” is increasingly relevant to streamlining product design workflows and achieving new product development (NPD) excellence. Further, learn how aPriori empowers companies to accelerate their project delivery timelines, often even ahead of schedule.

Main Causes and Outcomes of Product Design Process Delays

Gartner reports that nearly 50% of product launches experience delays, while McKinsey & Company finds that organizations facing six-month shipping delays lose 33% of their after-tax profit. These issues often stem from inefficient decision-making early in the product life cycle and the complexities of designing multifaceted products within intricate supply chains. It is also critical to recognize that market dynamics and evolving global conditions, such as economic fluctuations, impact the production feasibility and cost-effectiveness of specific product designs.

Designers are responsible for creating products that combine aesthetic appeal, functionality, cost-effectiveness, manufacturability, and sustainability. The complex task of balancing these critical factors, along with the form, fit, and function (FFF) characteristics in a bill of materials (BOM), often causes delays. Design engineering teams invest considerable time and effort in this process, frequently facing difficult trade-off decisions to ensure the on-time delivery of high-quality products to market.

Further, these teams allocate time to engineering analysis of their product concepts. Senior management and executive stakeholders must then evaluate, validate, and approve these designs before they can proceed to production. This iterative, back-and-forth process contributes to further delays in product launch programs.

The ripple effect of delays in design engineering produces a cascade of consequences, including:

• Soaring development costs and lost revenue
• Late-stage, costly engineering change order (ECO) requirements
• Delayed expense recovery
• A decline in market share and an inability to quickly meet customer needs
• Tarnished brand reputation and difficulties in meeting sustainable regulatory requirements
• Late penalty fees and the risk of losing shelf space and sales opportunities at key retailers

Digitalize to Streamline the New Product Introduction Process Effectively

Designers must take a strategic approach and utilize advanced digital technology from the outset to manage critical design issues, thereby avoiding time and budget losses.

Leading manufacturers worldwide use aPriori’s Manufacturing Insights Platform for real-time cost, manufacturability, and sustainability insights into various scenarios and design alternatives. Here’s how aPriori provides these game-changing insights:

• The platform includes three levels of automation:
  • Analyzes part/assembly 3D computer-aided design (CAD) geometry to provide instant design guidance, manufacturability feedback, and cost estimations
  • Enables streamlined workflows through integration with product lifecycle management (PLM) systems, ensuring the process includes automated design evaluations and actionable insights
  • Allows for bulk costing to identify cost-saving opportunities for multiple parts/assemblies quickly
• It delivers over 440 physics-based manufacturing processes and cost models across multiple areas
• It offers nearly 90 Regional Data Libraries (RDLs) that produce granular breakdowns of total manufacturing costs, including material expenses, labor rates, and manufacturing overhead (direct and indirect overhead costs, tool shop rates, etc.)

How aPriori Transforms and Elevates the Product Development Process

aPriori’s AI-powered, automated manufacturing insights solution transforms design innovation by providing real-time guidance to the product team, serving as an effective co-pilot. This platform delivers several benefits, enabling internal cross-functional team members to:

• Reduce the number of design iterations to accelerate the release of discrete parts, minimizing the risk of program delays under tight constraints
• Identify critical features during the early stages of product design that significantly influence cost, manufacturability, and sustainability, enhancing trade-off decisions
• Lower ECOs, which consume valuable design resources, increase development costs, and slow down launch schedules
• Monitor and manage progress toward weight, cost, and carbon metrics without significant overhead
• Quickly compare various design alternatives and pinpoint the most suitable options based on cost targets and more
• Determine whether initial cost targets are achievable and highlight potential non-recurring investments requiring further consideration
• Minimize the time spent on value engineering to give manufacturing, sourcing, and supply chain organizations more flexibility and time to enhance decisions

aPriori’s Impact: Eaton Cuts Product Design Time by 87 Percent

Eaton, a leader in intelligent power management, uses aPriori’s simulated, valuable, high-quality data for cost and DFM in its generative AI (Gen AI) projects. This approach allows Eaton to incorporate critical product requirements in its analysis.

By leveraging Gen AI, powered by aPriori data, Eaton quickly iterates through thousands of design options (in minutes or less) to identify the top five. The selected designs are then tested through detailed simulations to ensure they meet quality standards and requirements.

Eaton’s AI product-driven innovation, fueled by insights from aPriori, has achieved the following:

• Reducing the design time of an automated lighting fixture by 87%
• Decreasing the weight of a liquid-to-air heat exchanger by 80%
• Cutting the design time for a high-speed gear by 65%

Streamline Design for New Product Introduction Excellence

Optimal design timing is critical for a successful and effective new product release. Delays can negatively impact procurement, manufacturing, and the product’s introduction to market. aPriori’s Manufacturing Insights Platform accelerates project delivery and reduces costs, leading to faster market entry and higher profitability.