Background
An emerging company with operations on the US East Coast and US South-Central had chosen an alternate design services firm on the US East Coast, and a manufacturing partner located in the Pacific Northwest and Mexico. A huge materials inventory also meant that major re-design with significantly different parts was not financially possible.
These initial choices made by the customer were based on perceived cost advantages and existing relationships. However, the design was non-functional, the manufacturing was dysfunctional, and the company was about to collapse as nothing could be shipped and investors were losing faith. Drastic action within the constraints of remaining funding needed to taken to fix the situation.
Challenges
In order for this project to be executed well, a number of issues needed to be addressed in parallel, from technology to logistics.
On the engineering side, there were 3 significant challenges:
- Severe thermal issues created by sub-optimal component locations made the product unusable, and PCB routing made the product unstable and non-operational.
- Bad cable and connectivity design made the product fundamentally unmanufacturable.
- Bad mechanical design ensured the product took excessive time – with high skill levels - to assemble, severely impacting its cost basis.
Logistics were equally challenging, with the need to communicate and coordinate Engineering activity across the United States, while managing significant and complex supply chain issues in electronic components, mechanical components, cables and various sub-assemblies.
The Path to Success
GDA took responsibility for product evaluation followed by a crisp proposal on the minimum amount of effort needed to get working units using existing components and tooling. Execution started promptly, with solutions to the thermal issues developed within 3 days and verified in 2 weeks – along with controlled modifications to pre-cast mechanical parts that solved several assembly issues. A redesign of the PCB was completed in 8 weeks, while maintaining the same form factor to fit into existing mechanical enclosures.
In parallel, GDA procurement took charge of the supply chain issues, and in coordination with the client prepared material kits to enable manufacturing. GDAs' NPI (New Product Introduction) team worked with a new assembly location close to GDA San Jose offices, and delivered completed built and tested units to the client.
Given the time constraints also faced, GDA pulled in 3 locations – San Jose, Boston and Chennai (India) – to enable 24 x 6 work schedules.
Summary
By re-engineering the existing product and delivering working units within 3 months of the project kickoff, GDA was able to help ensure the fundamental business goal of the client – survival. With these working units, the client was then able to win substantial new business from various US government agencies and secure additional funding.
Going beyond this initial goal, GDA continued to work with the client, and engage in a systematic transfer of knowledge as the client was able to hire in new staff. Additionally, with the knowledge that GDA would be there – and be capable – the client was able to concentrate on growing the company carefully and hiring the best talent and thus avoid hiring in a hurry with the potential for the poor performance that created the near-death experience in the first place. |