“Outsourcing was in danger of becoming over hyped, with an exaggeration of its benefits and neglect of its problems and shortcomings. Michael Mol has served the literature and business practice well by developing a more balanced view that takes into account both opportunities and benefits, as well as limitations and adverse effects. For example, he includes the social cost of outsourcing that has previously been ignored. His main contribution is the following. Reasonably, and convincingly, using both theoretical and empirical argument, he shows that firm performance is an inverse U-shaped function of the extent of outsourcing. There can both too little and too much outsourcing. The book is very helpful in showing how the trade-off between advantages and disadvantages works. – Bart Nooteboom, Professor of Innovation Policy, Tilburg University and member of the Dutch Scientific Council for Government Policy

Product Description
Outsourcing has become one of the key restructuring tools for companies seeking to boost their growth and business performance. As the outsourcing phenomenon has mushroomed, so a range of academic studies have sought to define and describe a unifying theoretical model. Outsourcing: Design, Process and Performance draws upon managerial, economic, sociological, historical and psychological perspectives to bring about a new understanding of how outsourcing design and the outsourcing process feed into the performance of firms. Blending empirical insights from a range of international cases and large-scale statistical tests with existing theoretical perspectives, the author argues that a negative curvilinear relationship exists between outsourcing and firm performance. A critical analysis of current outsourcing strategies, together with a discussion of future trends, offers a new agenda for academic researchers and business managers alike.

Available at Amazon

The highly competitive medical industry requires firms to utilize every possible resource, both
internal and external, to stay ahead of the curve. While many medical device companies have
been capitalizing on the benefits of outsourced labor and manufacturing for years, only recently
have upstream functions such as product design and development become a major part of the
outsourcing trend. Medical device manufacturers are realizing that they can capitalize on external
engineering expertise to gain several advantages, such as market leading products and reduced
time-to-market, without jeopardizing trade secrets or intellectual property.

There are many factors that must be considered to determine if outsourcing product design
and development is a strategic fit for your company. Outlined below are 10 key benefits that
medical device manufacturers can realize by contracting these functions.

1. Leverage Multidisciplinary Expertise
Two heads are better than one, as the adage goes. This is particularly true for product design
and development, where truly innovative products rely on a multitude of concepts and theories for
differentiation and market leadership. A design team with industry-spanning expertise can apply
the best technology to the product concept. A team of engineers confined to one industry does
not have this pool of knowledge from which to draw, and this can impede finding the best
solutions to complex problems.

There are many cases of breakthrough products that were a result of fresh ideas and cuttingedge
technologies from unrelated disciplines. For example, when doctors were finding it
increasingly difficult to obtain high-resolution internal imaging of their patients due to the growing
obesity epidemic, a defense industry technology provided the solution. To meet the doctors’ need,
a technology based on military sonar mine detection was developed. This enabled imaging devices
to resolve objects at twice the distance of current systems. In addition, the same sonar technology
used by the navy to detect enemy submarines was applied to fetal heart monitoring. Many leading
medical devices were results of technological innovations from an unrelated industry.

2. Quickly and Easily Expand Internal Engineering Capabilities
Some projects require rapid scale-up of manpower for short-term assignments. Hiring fulltime
employees is not economical and adding temporary help is time-consuming and presents
confidentiality risks. Outsourcing, on the other hand, allows you to assign your partner’s full-time
staff to device development projects quickly and cost effectively. The proper amount of the
targeted expertise can be applied at the right time. Companies can therefore avoid paying for
excess labor and engineering costs. The various staff scale-up options are presented in Table 1.

3. Capitalize on Technology Forecasting
Experienced partners have foresight as to what future technologies can play a role in
developing products and how these advancements will impact your business. These firms have the
time and resources to survey the field and look at what is coming down the pike. They also have
networks to rely upon for up-to-date information. Larger engineering firms have the ability to test
emerging technologies in their laboratories, providing an additional benefit to the outsourcing
relationship.

Due to a growing aging population and rising healthcare costs, the need to monitor patients
from their homes has become more urgent. The advancement of wireless technology made
possible the development of cost-effective devices for convenient and efficient patient home care.
Now, patients with low mobility can be diagnosed and treated inexpensively in the comfort of
their own homes.

4. Manage Project Timeline
Many medical device design projects fall victim to mismanaged or unmanaged timelines. With
internal engineering and management resources stretched thin, it is often hard to fully commit
resources to product development projects. Outsourcing partnerships offer an advantage because
the engineering firm not only assumes project time management responsibilities but also assigns
and manages resources. The partners will agree on a program timeline at the start of the
agreement and schedule periodic meetings for status updates. A contract with established
deadlines and deliverables for each party helps to keep projects on track.

G.D. Searle realized this advantage when working with an outsourced partner to develop its
trandsdermal nitroglycerine patch to treat patients with angina. The company’s engineering
partner designed the product and manufacturing process and completed the production facility in
53 weeks. A project timeline was established by the product development firm, detailing project
stages from first sketch through product release along with corresponding timeframes. Scheduled
meetings and deadlines rapidly advanced the project, enabling G.D. Searle to beat competitors to
market.

5. Control Project Costs
Similar to providing project timeline management, external engineering partners can help
medical device companies keep product development costs within budgeted goals. At contract
signing, the project budget is set and resources allocated, with written approval required for any
changes. Reports are developed and delivered on an agreed-upon periodic basis to keep all
parties abreast of current expenditures versus budgeted amounts. As opposed to internal product
development, during which it can be difficult to account for time and resources, outsourcing
relationships provide clear dollar values for each project stage. This will prevent costs from
unknowingly spiraling out of control. An example of a project cost sheet is illustrated in Table 2.

6. Reduce Time-to-Market
End-to-end solutions are another benefit of working with external design teams. Qualified
partners can provide complete guidance from concept development to product development
through equipment design, build and installation. Having one point of contact for all aspects will
lend efficiency to the project. Additionally, experienced firms can apply knowledge of similar
projects and technologies to enhance productivity and overcome technical obstacles that can delay
product introductions.

The design challenges posed by C.R. Bard’s one-hand biopsy tool called for knowledge of
several disciplines. Since a timely release was critical to the product’s success, the firm turned to
an outside engineering team. This third-party applied expertise in medical product design,
materials, and mechanism development to create a proprietary process for a more ergonomic
biopsy tool. This device, operated with one-hand, satisfied C.R. Bard’s objectives, including a
speedy market introduction.

7. Maintain Confidentiality
One of the major misconceptions about outsourcing product design and development is that it
will compromise corporate trade secrets. However, working with a third-party engineering firm
can actually provide stronger protection for a company’s proprietary position than would internal
development. First, outsourcing engineering functions can reduce the threat of an employee
takeover by competitors because engineering partnerships provide anonymity. Competitors will
not be able to track down the engineers responsible for the development of your market leading
medical device if the design was outsourced. In addition, reputable and well-established design
firms sign confidentiality agreements and provide competitive exclusivity to their clients.

Velcro® Group of Companies experienced first-hand the power of confidentiality in its
outsourced engineering relationship. The company worked with a partner who designed the
innovative and proprietary production process for its molded hook and loop fasteners, and
consequently assigned patent rights and competitive exclusivity to Velcro®. When Velcro’s
design firm was approached by a major U.S. diaper manufacturer with a project that conflicted
with its Velcro® partnership, the project was declined by the design firm because it posed a
possible client conflict. However, the engineering firm was able to establish a connection between
Velcro® and this company, leading to a prosperous and profitable business relationship. This
result of this relationship was the development of a truly market-dominating product – a diaper
with Velcro® resealable closures.

8. Create a Proprietary Market Position with Innovative Products
To gain market ownership, companies must develop medical devices that provide an
innovative solution to some unsatisfied need. An experienced partner will be fluent in industry
trends and up-to-date on current happenings and can therefore gauge which niche your company
can effectively fill.

Innovative products are also difficult to replicate, leading to complete and lengthy market
ownership. Medical device manufacturers can get caught up in the modification maze, making
small alterations to existing products and re-launching them. However, these types of projects do
not command price premiums. Relying on external sources for product design and development
brings novel ideas and wide-ranging expertise to the table, leading to innovative products.
Becton Dickinson leveraged the multidisciplinary expertise of an engineering partner to
develop a superior and convenient insulin delivery device that earned a market leading position.

This partner applied insight on ergonomic design, injection molding and materials to the project.
The result was an innovative insulin injector pen, superior due to its ease of use, audible dosage
delivery indication for visually impaired users and low cost.

9. Protect Intellectual Property Rights
Medical device manufacturers can outsource upstream product development functions
without compromising intellectual property by working with partners that agree to assign IP
rights after the program’s completion. This means that the engineering company will either
cooperate in preparing patent applications or will maintain the development process as a trade
secret.

Nova Biomedical lacked a high-volume production capability for its innovative and
proprietary disposable strips. Part of the sub-micro liter glucose monitoring system selfadministered
by diabetics to check blood sugar levels, these unique strips contain a miniaturized
biosensor to convey blood to an electronic reader. Nova Biomedical recognized that an
experienced equipment-engineering firm was needed to design and build customized
manufacturing equipment to fit their unique product requirements. But, involving a third-party
could jeopardize trade secrets. To solve the problem, Nova Biomedical chose an outside design
firm that guaranteed the security of its intellectual property and agreed to assign intellectual
property rights once complete.

Within nine months, two units were designed, built, and installed in the manufacturing facility,
with ownership assumed by Nova Biomedical. Nova Biomedical now possesses the necessary
capacity to meet market demand and maintain its competitive edge.

10. Because the Competition is Outsourcing R&D

Medical device manufacturers are increasingly allocating funds to outsourcing product design
and development functions. This is supported by the growing budget percentages allocated to
R&D. For example, in 2002, the medical industry spent 11.4 percent of its sales on R&D, higher
than any industry except that for drugs and medicine.1 And in 2003, medical companies increased
the R&D portion of their budgets by an average of eight percent.2 Whether their strategy is to
maintain or gain market leadership, an increasing number of medical device companies are
recognizing that outsourcing product design and development is a critical strategic tool.

Answer true or false to the following statements to find out if your product design and
development process can benefit from outsourced engineering.
1. Internal resources are stretched thin.
2. Medical device development projects often run over budget.
3. Product launches are often delayed, costing the company a significant dollar amount due
to lost sales and extended expenses.
4. My company has not released a market-dominating product in several years.
5. My engineering staff’s expertise is concentrated in a few core industries.
6. Our R&D department has several new ideas, but we cannot develop efficient
manufacturing processes.
7. It is difficult to keep up with the competition in terms of new product development.
If any of the above statements hold true for your company, outsourcing product design and
development may be the solution.

About the Author
Robert R. Andrews is medical division manager for the commercial group at Foster-Miller,
Inc., a QinetiQ company. He has more than 25 years of medical device experience managing
product development and operations. He has 11 issued U.S. medical device patents. He received
an MBA from Bryant College and Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in plastics engineering from
The University of Lowell. He can be contacted at (781) 684-4639 or randrews@fostermiller.com.

10 Guidelines for Ecodesign

1. Do not design products, but life cycles
2. Natural materials are not always better
3. Energy consumption: often underestimated
4. Increase product life time
5. Do not design products, but services
6. Use a minimum of material
7. Use recycled materials
8. Make your product recyclable
9. Ask stupid questions
10. Become an O2 member!

To read the full article, visit Product Ecology Consultants.

Step 1
Join the Advertising Specialty Institute (ASI), since it’s the only way you can order items for customers directly from the vendors. You must be a member. It’s a high fee, more than $1,000 a year. However, if you are serious about making good money, it’s the only way to go.

Step 2
Know the benefits. As an ASI member, you will receive 50 percent off everything you order from ad specialty companies. If you work under some else’s membership, you split the 50 percent profit.

Step 3
Get a good supply of samples and catalogues from the ASI vendors. They have plenty of free samples available for new and existing members.

Step 4
Order a nice give-away for yourself. When you call on customers, you want to make a good, creative first impression. The owners and salespeople in the promotional products industry are typically the designer of the clients’ promotions. Larger ad specialty shops may keep an artist/designer on staff, but you will do all your own designs.

Step 5
Hire a professional artist to work on special jobs. Many commercial artists work freelance. Use her to work up spec samples when you’ve landed a big appointment.

Step 6
Take a year and learn the business while working for a larger ad specialty firm before you start your own. Find one that does not require you to sign a non-compete contract, so that when you leave, you can get right to work on your own company.

As Director of Design for Cincinnati-based product development firm Kaleidoscope, Demetrius Romanos leads a team of multidisciplinary specialists in design, strategy and research. Over the past seven years his team has worked with clients that include Motorola, Procter & Gamble, International Trucks, Staples, Evenflo and Ethicon Endo-surgery.

Demetrius recently answered some questions for us on the process of working with a product development firm and on today’s consumer market.

Q: What kinds of details should your customers keep in mind when conceptualizing their products?

A: Different yet similar to the real estate world’s mantra of “location, location, location,” with a product it’s all about positioning, positioning, positioning. Even more basic than that is just being honest enough with yourself to look at your product idea and ask a very blunt “so what?” What’s so great about my product, and why would anyone spend hard earned money for it?

Q: Do you ever have to turn people down and say, “This will never work?”

A: Well, not so much turn down, but try to open their eyes a bit. As consultants we’d be doing our clients a disservice if we didn’t offer solutions to their problems, since that’s what we’re paid to do. A lot of time it’s getting back to the core question of what is their product trying to solve, which you could likely accomplish several different ways.

Q: What are today’s consumers looking for as opposed to consumers 10-15 years ago? How are they different and how should your customers’ product ideas adapt to their changing needs?

A: The biggest difference we’ve seen is that consumers are seeking to make a connection with their products. This makes designing products far more challenging because a gadget alone that does what it says is not good enough. Whether it’s an MP3 player or a toothbrush, a product now also needs a soul.

Q: What effect does a downturning economy have on consumers, and therefore also have on you as a product development firm and the number/type of customers you get?

A: With consumers it comes down to choices. If there is any money left after housing, energy and food costs are covered, what will people spend their money on? That’s a big part of why the connection with a product becomes so critical. As for us, the number of clients can remain the same but will vary in the type of work. The focus shifts to more recession-proof industries like consumer goods and medical equipment.

Q: Is there anything at all that you are doing differently to compensate for or adapt to the current economic situation, or is it business as usual?

A: It’s not quite business as usual for many companies right now so you have to be really focused on what your goals are as an organization. We’ll tend to focus on two areas to grow our business: 1) Recession-proof industries like medical equipment and consumer goods, and 2) development of our own intellectual properties.

Q: At what point in the process do your customers come to you? Do they already have a prototype, or are they just sitting on an idea?

A: Our clients span the range from one side, where they don’t even know what it is they need yet, all the way to other clients having an item that they may just need help getting manufactured. We’ll engage at any point in the process, which is why flexibility and adaptability are so critical in consulting.

Q: Once your customers come to you, where does the process go from there?

A: This depends on where we’re engaged, but the primary point of entry is that a client needs to enter a market with a product. We’ll do research and strategy to define the consumer needs, positioning and business opportunities, with the outcome driving design concepts. We’ll then start broad then focus in on the design and engineer of those concepts, working our way down to the direction for manufacturing. At that point we may even assist in selecting the appropriate vendors and may serve as a liaison during the manufacturing process to maintain design integrity.
Read More…

During the past decade, there has been rapid growth of design outsourcing as a key
operational driver for companies to compete globally, increase productivity, and improve
profitability. Manufacturers are transforming their product development models from
local cross-functional operations to highly collaborative global operations, where skilled
resources dispersed around the world are leveraged to optimize value-add and
reduce cost.

Definition of Design Outsourcing

Design outsourcing is a process that enables companies to engage with design partners to deliver a design activity, the design of a single component, a subsystem, or an entire system. The process
consists of communicating outsourcing requirements and contractual agreement on project scope. Project documentation and CAD model definitions are shared. Furthermore, a project plan is implemented,
regular project and acceptance review are conducted, and final project work products are delivered…Read the full report.

I’ve met alot of designers in my limited experience that complain about the “sketchers”. Sometimes designers with an aptitude for sketching get labeled as being shallow or non-creative. However, I see sketching as a means to and end rather than the end all. When all is said and done, regardless of how flashy the sketch may be or how killer it may look, the essence of why we sketch ideas as designers is seeded in effectively communicating those ideas to our clients. Sketching is our language of communication.

Sometimes we sketch for fun, but most of the time when working, we sketch for clients or other designers. The sketches that go into your sketchbook are of a different quality than those you would show to your fellow designers in a review or to a client in a meeting, but both sketches have their uses nonetheless. Take this for example, you’re in a restaurant on a lunch break and something comes to mind. You quickly jot it down on a scraggly napkin so that you don’t forget the idea. That sketch too has its purpose. Although it could be the killer idea of a lifetime, the communication may be lacking from you to the client and may be more of a self communication tool.

So then what are the different types of sketches you ask? Well fortunately you are in the right place, at the right time, reading the right blog.

1. Personal Communication Sketches aka the Doodle:

These are the scraggliest of the scraggers. The dirtiest of the dirty. They sketches that tend to live in the sketchbook or on discarded pieces of paper. The purpose of doodling and sketching so roughly is for you the designer to work out the issues with form or function, but in a looser more empathic way. These sketches tend to be most present at the genesis of the product concept. For me, these are the doodles I do when preoccupied in thought on the bus or train as I try to fiddle around with new ideas or sketch techniques.

2. The Thinking Sketch:

Al little more focused and refined, these sketches are usually alot cleaner than the scraggly doodles you find in a sketchbook. You may find yourself showing these to other designers, so you can make certain assumptions as you sketch and use cues that your colleagues would pick up on suck as hatching and contour lines. Simple gestural sketches could also fall into this category. . .

3. The Technical Sketch

Designers bridge the gap between art and engineering. (you can decide for yourself what your role or mantra is) As such, sometimes it’s necessary when sitting and working with an engineer or clay modeler to then speak on their terms. That means pulling out the ol’ exploded views, cutaway views, and cross sections to help communicate your vision for the product your designing.

4. The Presentation Sketch:

This is where you bring out the big guns. These sketches tend to be a little more refined and thought out. you can think of them as being a little technical yet a little emotive. They serve to captivate the viewers interest while then explaining the concept visually. For a client that does not have the visual thinking skills of you fellow designers, it may be necessary to be a bit more explicit in how you explain things in your sketches (hence the technical aspect). Notes, callouts, different views – this is where you’ll want to be overt in how you express the idea.

5. The Emotive Sketch:

The gushy, over the top, killer sketch whose soul purpose is to make your viewer stare in awe at the killer sketch/render in front of them. Yes this is what tends to be the automotive sketch. Descriptive yet very emotional. I rarely do these much as I tend to work in 3-d once I get past the presentation sketch phase, but don’t get me wrong, I totally dig these and love a good emotionally and visually captivating sketch.

Source: ID Sketching