In Industrialization, Planning Is Everything

In case you aren’t already up to speed, we’re now at the halfway mark of our five-piece series on industrialization. So far we’ve covered its history, and broken down the individual steps that an electronics company needs to go through to be successful at it. Now we’re at the most important part of all – Plan and Analyze. Let us be clear, if you don’t get these two steps right, your industrialization will fail. Here’s why they’re so critical.

Heed These Words

This is slightly left field, but a quote we often think about when it comes to the Plan and Analyze steps of the industrialization process is from the Hall of Fame baseball catcher, Yogi Berra.

“If you don’t know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else.”

To give these wise words some context: consider that ‘someplace else’ in electronics manufacturing is time and money – the years and millions spent on a product that hasn’t captured market share and isn’t generating the revenue you need it to. Not good.

Industrialization, when done right, is a continuous process, but it still has a starting point. It begins with understanding how viable a new product is. It’s a very simple idea. But Plan and Analyze are the two steps that almost every company we speak to doesn’t do a good enough job of.

If we look at Plan first, it’s all about the high level:

You could have the best idea in the world but if it doesn’t fundamentally align with what your business goals are (where you are going) then it’s not going to work.

To give an example: in 1985, Coca-Cola tried to reclaim some of the market share they had lost to Pepsi by releasing ‘New Coke’ that tasted more like their competitor’s product. It was a total flop – a failure in terms of aligning product viability with company goals. Coke never wanted to be more like Pepsi so the new drink failed. Also, how could ‘New Coke’ ever fit in with the rest of Coke’s product strategy, which again should align with company strategy?

Don’t let your company fall victim to what looks like a good idea on paper when it doesn’t take into account the critical context of the business it’s going to be manufactured by.

Head Into The Weeds

After Plan, comes Analyze. If you’re at the point where you’re confident the product idea you have closely aligns with what your business is trying to achieve – and either complements other products or covers gaps your product line has – then it’s time to find out if the world is ready/interested, and if your business is capable of delivering it.

In-depth market research is the first place to start. Is there any demand? Perhaps you’ve had consistent customer feedback on a particular aspect that an existing product lacks? Or maybe you’ve seen a competitor start to move into a new market segment that you think you can compete in? You also need to consider whether or not your idea has already been made. Intellectual property rights (IPR) must be considered and investigated early so that you don’t leave yourself exposed to the risk of third-party litigation.

Looking internally, do you have the technical resources to design and manufacture this product? That means understanding your access to expertise, whether or not this product fits in with your testing strategy and equipment, and of course, whether or not you have access to the machines capable of manufacturing this product.

Again, all of this sounds so obvious, but so often companies who are already successful in a market assume that everything they already have will easily support a new product. Even if it’s similar, it pays dividends to properly investigate viability. The more you spend now, the more you’ll save later on avoiding being ‘New Coke’.

If you’ve got to this point and you’re realizing that you may have already been past go, that you’ve got a product in development and you don’t have a handle on IPR, or true market demand, that’s ok – you just need to pump the brakes. Bring in some expert help, go back to basics, and get a plan in place.

Let us help you

Don’t know where to go to find the expert help you need to make industrialization successful? Look no further than Virinco. These articles are just a taste of our expertise, so get in touch now, and find out how we can help.

This is the third article in a five-part series on industrialization.  Read the others: