Our product development services.
A full lifecycle process to take your plastic products from idea to launch.
Requirements. Concept Design. Design for manufacture. Prototype. Manufacture. Marketing.
Foxworks Engineering offers a comprehensive range of services to support you in transforming your idea into a successfully launched product. We will work with you to identify the most robust and cost-effective process of doing this to avoid mistakes and delays in the development lifecycle. This ensures we give you a tailored experience suited to your specific needs and requirements.
Our services fall into 6 core categories; requirements, concept design, design for manufacture, prototype, manufacture and marketing. Depending on your specific product development needs, we can guide you on which services would give most value to your project.
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End goal of this phase: a document clearly stating the market needs, translated into a clear product technical specification.
Well defined and understood requirements, validated against the voice of the customer, are at the core of any commercially successful product. Tying the technical specifications of the product back to the market needs is important in ensuring the form, fit and function of the product is grounded in what your customers need and want.
At Foxworks Engineering we will work with you to understand 3 key areas:
Voice of customer (VOC) - what are your customers saying? This could be understood through market research, competitor reviews, focus groups, questionnaires and customer visits. Ultimately we want to know what your customers want and don’t want from the product.
Market needs - what does your product need to satisfy your target market? This is a translation of the VOC data into a set of top level statements. The market needs outline the key things your product needs to fulfill to be desirable by the customer and compliant in the countries of sale.
Technical specification - what specific technical requirements does your product need to meet? This is another stage of translation, taking the market needs and turning them into specific and measurable technical needs that a product can be designed against.
At the end of this process, we have a document that gives a clear design brief for the concept design phase. We can be confident that the technical specifications are rooted in customer needs so that the end product is much more likely to be a commercial success.
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End goal of this phase: a proposed design direction that meets all key market requirements.
In the concept design phase, product requirements are turned into a range of initial solution ideas. This is an exciting step of any project where the product first takes shape in CAD and we can start getting a sense of how the product may look and feel. It’s normal for there to be several quick design iterations at this stage where we try out design ideas, play around with different solutions to product requirements and hone in on a design we’re happy with.
At Foxworks Engineering we will work with you at every step to make sure that the ongoing design is meeting our agreed requirements and your expectations. We’ll also share our expertise and recommendations to make sure that we’re avoiding common or foreseeable problems in the product design and function. We will tailor how we present concept designs, typically using raw CAD data or photo-realistic renders, to show off proposed form, fit and function aspects of the design.
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End goal for this phase: a chosen manufacturing method and a product design that is suitable for that manufacturing method.
The design for manufacture (DFM) phase turns the leading concept design into a manufacturable product. By this stage, we will have agreed on the final design direction that will meet all market and technical requirements, so we can focus on planning for turning the virtual CAD design into a physical product.
At Foxworks Engineering, we can recommend the best manufacturing method for the product. We will then refine the design so that it is suited to being made in our chosen process. For example, an injection moulded product would need (among other design considerations) suitable draft angles and undercut avoidance to reduce tooling costs and reduce the risk of damaged or warped parts when produced. Or a 3D printed product would need overhang angle limits to reduce reliance on support structures that could introduce warping or rough surface finishes.
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End goal of this phase: physical models of the product that can be used to validate the form, fit and function.
In the prototype phase, we bring the product to life in the physical world. This allows us to check the form, fit and function of the product to make sure it is meeting the product requirements as we expect. Any issues found at this stage can be fed back into the design process to quickly iterate the product into an improved version.
In reality, the prototype phase often runs in parallel to the concept design and DFM phases, allowing us to quickly check product features as they are developed to make sure they work as intended. This helps avoid mistakes and errors further down the line where design changes can be more time consuming and costly.
At Foxworks Engineering we will select the best prototyping methods. Typically this will be 3D printed or CNC machined parts for testing and review. We may also be prototyping sections of the overall product and scaled down versions of the product to keep development times as low as possible whilst still providing valuable insight into the form, fit and function of the final product.
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End goal of this phase: a finished product in your possession.
In the manufacture phase of the project, the final product design is developed right through to a finished product delivered to you. It’s where the product development aspect starts to wind down, and you can start looking forward to using and selling a commercially successful finished product.
At Foxworks Engineering we will produce a suitable manufacturing pack that would typically include CAD models, technical drawings, bills of materials (BOMs) and aesthetic information like colours and surface finishes. This manufacturing data will include all the relevant information to get production quotes from potential suppliers and then ultimately used to choose a manufacturing partner. We can support you in finding trusted manufacturing partners who can produce your product at the right balance of cost and quality.
Once a manufacturing partner has been chosen, we will support you through any technical queries that come up about your product. We can also act as your supply chain support team to streamline the process of getting through the start of production and the finished products delivered to you.
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End goal of this phase: graphics and branding that can be used to enhance your sales strategy.
The marketing phase is critical for showing off your product and making yourself recognised by your target market segment.
At Foxworks Engineering we can support you with the creation of advertising and marketing material like photo-realistic renders, instruction manuals and branding. All of these help add the professional polish to your product offering and increase the likelihood of a successful product launch and ongoing sales success.