Your First Step Is the Most Important
Designing for tomorrow’s precision instruments calls for a different set of rules. Leading OEMs in the medical device sector have redefined what they need to maintain a successful new product development and new product introduction pipeline. These elements include:
- Precision tolerance prototyping
- Access to a solid manufacturing support team
- An infrastructure that is nimble and resourceful
- Ability to inspect and provide data from the prototype stage forward
- Fast turnaround
What that looks like on the ground is a powerful product development solution offering broad capabilities and a solid team of resources in an established, experienced infrastructure. It involves a true development partner that delivers precision where it’s needed, DFM expertise, and long-term manufacturing efficiency. It requires a program that offers collaborative engagement that provides clear solutions and adds significant value to the NPI/NPD process.
The benefit of a precision prototype is in its ability to allow designers to determine fit, form, and function at the component level, perform tests, and proof concepts more efficiently. It takes a uniquely capable manufacturer with extensive expertise in a broad range of areas. Hobson & Motzer has this depth in multi-axis CNC-machining and other advanced manufacturing expertise to quickly deliver iterations of precise tolerance prototypes. Combined with equal depth in coining and precision metal stamping, a First Step project will allow you to enhance product development and more easily transition into scaled production by maintaining learning curve continuity within the same manufacturer.
An important hallmark in product development from a manufacturing standpoint is that from the beginning, the components must be assessed for their entire lifecycle. When planning through this lens, the benefit of a project-based approach makes sense. It brings a robust DFM process, takes quality engineering into consideration at the outset, and builds long-term stability into the process from the very first step. This assures that NPI/NPD for parts and components are optimized, from every angle, including cost.
More than a century of manufacturing expertise and hundreds of successful product development projects have afforded Hobson & Motzer intimate knowledge of the demand for this specific capability in the medical device market and other advanced industries. As such, we have launched our new project-based rapid precision prototyping program, called First Step.
Start Off Right with Your First Step!
Starting with an insightful DFM exchange that occurs at the earliest phase in the process can steer the manufacturing costs of an initial design in the right direction—right from the start—and is a best practice. The process should include supplier input from process and materials engineering and quality control. This key step is important and allows potential problems to be identified and addressed during the design phase, saving time, money, and wasted resources in the long run.
As parts move through design iterations, precision prototyping, and on through final design, the production methods are being developed and optimized. The project approach allows the team to own the learning curve, which yields superior results throughout the project.
It is important to collaborate closely early in the design process to:
- Understand what technology is available to meet critical tolerances and increase overall productivity
- Define requirements for prototypes
- Produce consistent, high-quality components
- Own the learning curve to optimize efficiencies
- Develop scalable production methods to support high volumes
The introduction of this platform for NPI reflects the voice of the customer, loud and clear. Customers in med device and other advanced industries have expressed a need for higher level rapid prototyping that is executed to precise tolerances. It provides an opportunity for both the part and the manufacturing process to evolve simultaneously. This approach yields valuable data and learning that does not occur when the two processes are separate. Having a dedicated program is the next natural step for us to offer our customers. At Hobson & Motzer, the best First Step is one that employs the same proven processes that are applied in large-scale production programs from the get-go—with the full force of our team and talent behind it. An engagement with Hobson & Motzer’s First Step rapid precision prototyping program is just that—the First Step in a successful product development project. We realize that one-off prototypes are available elsewhere—we produce precision parts and processes, which help customers deliver better results.
Hobson & Motzer has been working with companies to produce innovative solutions since 1912. Read more about our First Step program here. We look forward to taking this First Step with you.
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