I wanted to write an article and maybe start a discussion
about a trend we at Hachi Design have noticed and are wondering if it’s the same
for others.
When I first started on my career as a designer, the first
two companies I worked for had fully staffed in-house model shops. Both employed a model maker who had studied
model making at university and then gone on to work in film and design model
making. As a designer it made a great
difference as model making helped us to develop ideas and then help to prove
the design to the client and helped to inform the design team of any potential
problems. The model makers helped input
from a practical and assembly point of view into the design.
The model shops were fully equipped with CNC milling, vacuum
casting, machine tools and paint booth, and thus we could re-produce any of our
ideas within reason. So great resources to have at your disposal but highly
expensive to run and maintain.
When I joined my third company they had a different model
that was starting to emerge which was getting rapid prototyping done by the
factory in China who was going to supply the final goods. This way seemed to
make sense, you are getting real world input from the manufacturer and they can
really help shape the final design to reduce the production costs and stop the
traditional designer issue of getting what’s in your head made in a sensible
cost effective way for mass production.
This model of working also helped our clients as the cost of the
development work could be amortized across the products production run and
built into the final unit price. The supplier
also would help with the tooling cost upfront in a similar way. Great for small companies who have the idea
but just don’t have the big money needed to develop and get the product made.
This was about six years ago when I first started working in
China, and it was really easy to find suppliers eager to help. They were more than happy to get involved as
soon as we had something sketched, but I personally think this attitude has
changed, and again I would like to say this is obviously a statement based on
my own experiences and is not a broad stroke comment. Of course we have still suppliers who want to
be a development partner, but we are finding that attitude harder to find.
I think this is for several reasons, first I think some of the
suppliers here have had a bad experience with designers and the process they
use. They may have been blown away by an
idea, invested fortunes only for them to end up with something that does not
work very well or even sell very well so they struggle to get the return on
their investment, so why would you take the risk now?
I think some factories just find the whole innovation route
too unpredictable, too much trouble with all the problems that have to be
solved along the way. They just want to
manufacture and get the profits from that, why have all the problems in the
beginning, that’s the designer’s job.
Some suppliers have decided to concentrate on their own
domestic market and the reverse engineering route as it’s just as profitable
for them without having to put up with the people with crazy ideas.
So now when we get a new project unless we have a good
existing relationship with a required supplier it is a challenge getting the
advice and help that the factories used to give. That’s if you can get them to even look at
it. Sometimes we used to ask for
quotations for parts and tooling at a basic block model stage to gauge if we
could get what we wanted product wise, at the costs that are commercially acceptable. This is becoming almost impossible as the
suppliers don’t want to waste time on writing quotations on something that is
most likely going to change, which I can understand on a pure commercial level,
put you never know what it might become.
We are finding now that suppliers will only talk to you once
you have a complete set of drawings preferably with a working prototype, which
they can then use to really understand the design and know exactly what it will
cost. Basically the final as you want it
made design without them having to really think about it. Meaning they also don’t need a large
engineering team of their own so saving money for them.
The other side of it is though that now they don’t really
want to help develop other people’s products they do want to do their own, so
they have now moved from being partners to the client.
So for me it has come full circle, we are now again looking
to use the growing number of rapid prototype / model making companies that have
started to open in China and handling everything in-house getting the client to
sign off the design, and then go find somebody to make it.
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