When you’re dealing with engineers you’re talking CAD and design; when you’re working with purchasing and production you’re talking ERP and SCM. And if you have to share product data between these groups, the only way to make sure each system accepts the information is to send everything via email and spreadsheets.

While email and spreadsheets are fine for some things, they are not the best way to share a build package or a change order.  This is why we developed Arena PDXViewer—a free cloud application that displays PDX build packages in an easy-to-read, navigable format. (To learn more about the PDX file standard, check out my previous post.)

We built PDXViewer for ultimate usability, enabling it to work on any computer with any operating system and without any required set up. Our viewer has been the cleanest, simplest viewer on the market for some time, but we’ve recently introduced a new feature that brings PDXViewer to the next level—the ability to filter a build package.

Introducing Filter—the easiest way to break your BOM up into supplier-specific build packages

With Filter, you have the flexibility to decide what to include and exclude in your PDX build package. This new feature means that PDXViewer now gives you complete control over the exact set of parts and drawings you share with a subcontractor, vendor or manufacturing partner.

How to use Filter to control your product data

Filter addresses an issue that affects everyone in the manufacturing process—control over what data is shared.

• Engineers can use Filter to remove unwanted or private files, items, manufacturers and contacts from a build package before sharing with downstream partners, or requesting a quote.
• Procurement can use Filter to break build packages up into vendor-specific data sets for clear, unambiguous communication with vendors.
• Operations can use Filter to attach a customized build package to a work order so manufacturing partners have all the information they need to do their jobs.
• Contract manufacturers can use Filter to create a unique build package for each vendor when outsourcing aspects of production, such as cables, PCB, enclosures, or the shipping and packaging.

Give PDXViewer a try—it’s free!

When sharing a build package, there is always the concern that including too much information will lead to unwanted exposure of private or erroneous data, or confusion on the part of the recipient. With the addition of Filter to PDXViewer, you can rest easy, knowing you are in complete control of what data travels down the supply chain.

Try PDXViewer today for free—create and share build packages with more control and fewer errors.

At Arena, we’ve been working on a couple of new products ourselves, Arena PartsList and Arena PDXViewer, so I’ve gotten to see a bit of what goes into new product introduction first hand. (Admittedly, as a software company we’ve got it much easier since our products don’t need to obey the laws of physics!)

A lot of things can take you by surprise when introducing a new product. You may find that your internal resources are not always available in the time frame or with the required expertise to meet NPI demands. Your internal resources may also have limited bandwidth, forcing you to hire and manage outside partners. And if you are a global organization, the complexities of your global customers and supply chain pose an extra challenge.

The best way to deal with the stress of NPI is to create clear goals, processes and benchmarks from the beginning. These things can keep you on track when production ramps, it starts getting hectic and you find yourself asking, “Why are we doing this to ourselves!”

Our partner, Product Realization Group (who is hosting a webinar on NPI in February) shared with me a list of basic business questions that you can use to start drafting your new product introduction plan.

Kick off your next product launch with the following questions:

- What are the sales/revenue projections for this new product?

- As you move toward launch, will operations require additional/temporary headcount?

- What is the operations budget when it comes to expense and capital equipment plans?

- What are projections for gross margins? (Consider ASP targets and COGS targets)

- What are current and projected product costs? (Include inventory projections, warranty claims and returns and any additional facilities requirements)

There is a lot more to NPI than this checklist, but answering these basic questions is a good place to start. (For example, how can you determine the potential ROI of the product without an idea of what you expect to make? And how much does the extra required headcount impact overall revenue potential?) And if you’re interested in learning more about NPI, check out Product Realization Group’s upcoming seminar—Launching Success.

With the upcoming launch of PDXViewer and PartsList, I have NPI on the brain. Next week, I will share what each department should contribute to a successful product launch.

For more information

Launching success with a solid new product introduction process

For a successful startup, don’t forget the fundamentals

New product introduction (NPI) challenges and solutions

Navigating a product launch without a reliable and scalable product data management tool (and no, Excel doesn’t cut it) can have disastrous consequences that can crop up at any stage along the production process.

The top 5 indicators that your business needs a BOM management tool

Identifying where to spend and where to save can be a tricky call to make. Below are 5 common red flags that indicate it’s time for your business to look into a BOM management tool.

1. You handle hard to track designs and frequently changing costs.
2. You deal with manual processes like parts requests, ECO/ECN documents and deviations.
3. You manage multiple islands of product data coming from teams like mechanical and electrical design, purchasing and quality.
4. There are several channels of communication between groups like ODMs, outsourcing partners, international branches or various web portals.
5. Any changes to the product record that are not caught early might result in costly product recalls and scrap.

So what’s the real reason you aren’t using a BOM management tool?

In 2008, the Aberdeen group conducted a study to find out why companies adopt (or don’t adopt) process improving software. The biggest reason why many companies choose to forgo a better process tool may surprise you.

Aberdeen found the biggest resistance to adopting a new process tool is cultural resistance within the organization.

What are the reasons you have put off the adoption of process improvement tools? 

For more information:

Announcing Arena PDXViewer: a free web app for sharing product data

MVP—Minimum viable product

The best BOM resources from Arena

First-to-market innovation challenges: An Arena Customer Spotlight

My post this summer about the limited availability of tantalum capacitors was based on conversations with small and mid-size manufacturers who could not buy enough of certain components (not just tantalum capacitors) for their products. We’d love to hear from more engineers and manufacturers. How do you find the parts you need to build and launch your products? Are there areas that are particularly challenging?

Please let us know how you identify, select and price components by completing this short 8-question survey or commenting below. And feel free to spread the word to any friends or colleagues who might be willing to share their experiences too!

You’ve just conceived a brilliant new invention. Now what?

A recent post in the MFG.com Mojo blog offers suggestions to help you navigate the early stages of “bringing your creation to life.” MFG.com’s “4 Rules For Inventors & Entrepreneurs Sourcing Their Products” are:

1. Enlist a designer – You’ll get better manufacturing results if you can provide complete, accurate design information. One option is to pick a manufacturing partner that offers design capabilities too.
2. Quality of information – Having good, complete information will help you find the right supplier, shorten the production process and make design changes more easily later in the game.
3. Think twice about going to a low-cost country for your first run – When you’re just getting started, cost is a concern–but the complexity that comes from variables like language, lead times and quality management shouldn’t be overlooked. Be as thorough as possible when comparing the tradeoffs.
4. Protect your invention…correctly – Require non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) before discussing your invention, and get trademark and patent applications underway right away.

Read the complete MFG.com Mojo post for more details.

1. APICS, the Association of Operations Management, has made its APICS Operations Management Body of Knowledge (OMBOK) Framework available to the public, free of charge, for the first time. As a resource that “builds on more than 50 years of operations management knowledge” to provide an understanding of “the state of operations management today,” it’s clear why anyone working in the field would be interested in the framework. APICS CEO Abe Eshkenazi makes a convincing case for why others might be interested too: “The APICS OMBOK Framework can become an essential reference tool to all businesspeople as supply chain and operations management becomes a more visible function throughout the enterprise.” Learn more in the June 23 APICS news release, or download the APICS OMBOK Framework.
2. Aberdeen is offering free access for a year to its research library, the Vault. (Vault access normally costs $995/year.) The offer is being made in conjunction with Eye for Transport, a provider of transportation and logistics information and services. Aberdeen Vault research is organized into categories that span an enterprise’s many functions and offer something for everyone. Manufacturers may be particularly interested in the categories Product Innovation and Engineering, Manufacturing and Supply Chain Management, which include reports like: Lean Operations: Software Strategies for Manufacturing’s New Normal; Manufacturing Operations Management: Capitalizing on the Economic Recovery; and Supplier Quality Management: Seven Tips to Reducing Non Conformances in the Value Chain. Read more about the Aberdeen/Eye for Transport free year of research offer, or sign up for free access to the Aberdeen Research Vault.

Thanks to SupplyChainBrain.com for the tips on these two resources!

This perching unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) relies on a claw design similar to a small bird, enabling it to perch on vertical surfaces.

The Stickybot mimics a gecko, enabling it to climb smooth vertical surfaces.

This robotic handling system gets a greatly expanded range of motion by mimicking an elephant’s trunk.

With fluid-based muscles, this system mimics the muscle structure of a human.

To learn more about some of these (and other) projects, visit the online home of the Stanford Biomimetics & Dexterous Manipulation Laboratory, which designed the perching UAV and the Stickybot.

The community votes on which ones they want to develop and then adds its input on things such as product aesthetics, design, logo, and even its name. The best ideas are then taken by Quirky’s team of engineers and designers and turned into 3D renderings.

The next step is the most important one: the product is then placed on pre-sale, where anyone can buy the product. However, Quirky will only sell something if it hits a minimum number of sale commitments (usually under a thousand). Once that number is reached, the product is made and person who submitted the original idea gets a piece of the revenue pie.

All it takes is $99 to submit a product idea to the Quirky community. If you have a killer product idea (and who doesn’t!)–and the “go it alone” approach isn’t for you–Quirky might be worth a look. (And if you feel like shopping for some interesting products–modular spatula system or iPod nano kickstand, anyone?–Quirky is definitely worth a look!)

1. Go get it.
2. Share it.
3. Live it.

In Step 1 I offered advice on how to collect good market information, and in Step 2 I described the importance of sharing that information with the rest of your organization.

The premise behind Step 3 is that it’s one thing to have a conceptual understanding of the buyers in your market, but it’s another to walk a mile in their shoes. In order to truly understand your buyers, step away from your desk and go see them in action. If you can, go live a day in the life of your customer.

Step 3: Live it. See what your customers see. Think what they think.

There are a lot of ways to get a better understanding of the buyers in your market. Here are some of my favorite ways to live it:

• Take a field trip. Visit your customers and talk to the people who made the decision to buy your product. Watch them use your product and ask them to articulate the value they get from it.
• Attend the same trade shows and conferences as your buyers, even if you’re not exhibiting. Have casual conversations at lunch or between sessions.
• If applicable, attend your company’s training classes and listen to your new customers’ expectations for your product.
• Create in-person focus groups or advisory boards.
• Cultivate relationships with key customers who are representative of your greater market.
• Perform in-person product testing.
• Give out samples or free trials, observe the behaviors of people who use them and talk to them about their experiences.
• Don’t forget to pick the brains of the subject matter experts in your own organization.

Nothing takes the place of in-person interactions, but as a matter of practicality, we can’t spend every day in the field. Keep up to date by leveraging the web to listen to the conversations in your market. Follow your market’s LinkedIn groups, newsletters, forums, blogs (including the replies!) and industry events.

Listen for the nuances in your buyers’ language and adjust your own to make sure you’re truly speaking to them. Be observant when their problems change and adjust your understanding of what your solution needs to provide. Do this often and make sure you’re feeding any updates back to the rest of your organization.

Soon, you’ll all be looking at your product through the eyes of the customer. The beauty of this approach is that making product decisions ultimately becomes easier. Once you know who you’re building for, you don’t need to guess.

Further reading:

Taking product research to the next level

1. Go get it.
2. Share it.
3. Live it.

Gathering the information is the critical first step in the process and it can be very rewarding. It’s great when people validate our ideas and it’s even better when they improve on them.

Collecting this data is important, but it’s still just data. It only becomes valuable product feedback if you actually do something with it. And this brings us to…

Step 2: Share it with your entire organization.

You’ve collected the data, you have some product feedback and you think you know the right thing to do…but people around you aren’t listening. How do you overcome their resistance?

At Arena, everyone knows "Brad," the VP of operations.

The answer: Put it in the voice of the market. Share the information you gathered. Point out trends in the market. Relay the product feedback, highlighting the praises and the criticisms. One of the most effective ways to do this is to give a name and a face to each of the key buyers in your market.  This is often referred to as “buyer profiling” or creating a buyer persona. (Note: This is different than creating a user persona.)

Here’s an example of buyer profiling. At Arena, everyone knows “Brad,” the VP of operations. Brad is 44 years old. Brad went to a state school. Brad gets frustrated with engineering. Brad gets fired if his product ships late.

Brad is not a real person.

Brad was created from the aggregation of dozens of conversations, hundreds of survey data points and a lot of product feedback. Through our analysis, we identified his top responsibilities and the main problems he encounters in trying to get his job done. We also gained insight into his personal and professional goals. Further, we learned where he gets his job-related information and what his preferred methods of communication are.

After we created Brad, we introduced him to everybody in our company through a series of presentations, conversations and printed materials. We made sure that each group had the information it needed to make the best decisions about how to serve this key buyer. For marketing, for instance, we made sure the team knew that Brad hates email but trusts his LinkedIn groups. For our developers, we described how Brad is a pretty savvy user (he’d be comfortable approving a change order from his Blackberry) but not a hardcore technophile. We went through our findings with sales, support, training and all of management.

The results have been great.

Now, everybody understands Brad and the problems that we solve for him. We hear it in meetings all the time: “Yes, but would Brad care?”

What happens when times change though? How do you keep up with product feedback in a moving economy?

The answer: Live it.