How our customers achieved lower costs with Staub Manufacturing Solutions’s engineering & design assistance
Around nine months ago, a customer approached us about a new project that they were in the process of prototyping. They already designed the entire unit, with CAD drawings available. The company was simply looking for someone to work with to manufacture the unit in production.
During our initial meeting & conversation with the customer, they made several comments. They would like to find ways to save money on this project because it was coming in way over budget. Once we understood the important features of their design & the unit, we began looking at ways to improve processes and reduce costs. We took into consideration the functionality requirements, cosmetic needs, envelope / size restrictions, & final assembly requirements.
After careful review of the project, we offered several design changes that improved the material usage, consolidated the material types required, improved process flow & times (by changing the type of process in some instances), worked with the customer to communize the hardware & built in error proofing features to assist with ease of assembly. These efforts ultimately helped to lower the cost of the final unit. This thrilled the customer, and they incorporated these changes into the design. As the project moved forward, the customer required several revisions in an attempt to optimize the final product.
Over the next several months as revisions were made, we continued to offer engineering assistance. This streamlined not only the design, but the manufacturability of the unit that would ultimately help with final product production. Once a final design was reached, the customer had included almost all of our suggestions, and we were ready to figure out a final cost on the unit. From the original design of the unit to the new streamlined design, we were able to lower the cost of the unit over 25%!
Since then, we have built several operating units, and they are currently being tested in the field. The customer is telling us that the feedback is going great. We should start ongoing, long-term production sometime in the first quarter.
The customer appreciated the improvements we made to the unit, which resulted in a sizeable savings. They conveyed that the market will be able to handle the price point a lot better than the original design.
Frankly, this isn’t the first time that we have achieved these types of results (unfortunately, not all of them result in 25% savings). There have been numerous occasions like this over the past 27 years when we have sat down with our customers to work out the best solutions for them. Don’t just take our word for it, here is a testimonial from one of our customers:
“We have been a delighted customer of Staub Manufacturing Solutions for many years. What we truly appreciate about Staub is their professional approach to the product development process. Their practical advice regarding manufacturability always helps us avoid unnecessary costs.”
Joe M. – Sales Engineer
