The pipeline
Eleven stages. No surprises.
Hardware has a sequence, and skipping steps is the most expensive mistake in the industry, so here is the whole path in plain language.
Clients enter at any stage. Most enter at stage 04, the audit. Stages 01 to 03 run with our design house partner when your product needs them.
Design (01 to 03)
- 01
Product definition
- INPUT: YOUR BRIEF
- OUTPUT: REQUIREMENTS
- GATE: YOUR APPROVAL
What the product must do, for whom, at what target cost. Requirements, constraints, certifications you will eventually need. Weak definitions here become expensive surprises later, so we pressure test this with you before anything is drawn.
- 02
Industrial design
- INPUT: REQUIREMENTS
- OUTPUT: FORM AND CMF
- GATE: YOUR APPROVAL
The product's shape, feel and identity. Form, ergonomics, materials, colors and finishes. This is where a product becomes something people want to hold, and where design decisions quietly set most of the future manufacturing cost.
- 03
Engineering design
- INPUT: FORM AND CMF
- OUTPUT: CAD AND DRAWINGS
- GATE: DESIGN REVIEW
The inside of the product: mechanics, electronics, thermal paths, fastening, assembly logic. CAD models and drawings a factory can actually work from.
Validate (04 to 08)
- The gate04
Production Readiness Audit
- INPUT: CAD FILES
- OUTPUT: AUDIT REPORT
- GATE: VERDICT AND READOUT
Our entry point, and the gate every project passes. An engineer checks the design against manufacturing reality: processes, tolerances, cost drivers, certification path. This is our fixed price DFM audit, with a verdict, a written report and a readout call. Credited against your program.
The rule
You approve every gate. Nothing moves without you.
- 05
Appearance model
- INPUT: FORM AND CMF
- OUTPUT: NON WORKING MODEL
- GATE: YOUR APPROVAL
Looks exactly like the product, does not function. For pitching, photography, packaging tests and investor conversations. Fast and comparatively cheap.
- 06
Works like prototype
- INPUT: CAD AND BOM
- OUTPUT: FUNCTIONAL UNIT
- GATE: TEST RESULTS
Functions properly, looks rough. Proves the core technology before any money goes into beauty.
- 07
Engineering prototype
- INPUT: AUDIT REPORT
- OUTPUT: PRODUCTION INTENT UNIT
- GATE: YOUR APPROVAL
Looks and works like the real product, built with production intent methods. Still hand built and expensive per unit, and worth every cent, because this is the last cheap place to change your mind.
- 08
Design freeze and DFM
- INPUT: PROTOTYPE FEEDBACK
- OUTPUT: FROZEN DESIGN PACK
- GATE: DESIGN FREEZE
The design is locked and refined for volume manufacturing: draft angles, wall thicknesses, part consolidation, assembly time. After this point, changes cost tooling money.
Produce (09 to 11)
- 09
Tooling
- INPUT: FROZEN DESIGN PACK
- OUTPUT: MOLDS AND FIXTURES
- GATE: TOOLING SIGN OFF
The steel molds and fixtures for mass production. The big, irreversible spend. Everything before this stage exists to make sure this money is spent once, correctly.
- 10
First article and pilot run
- INPUT: MOLDS AND FIXTURES
- OUTPUT: PILOT BATCH
- GATE: INSPECTION REPORT
The first units off the real tooling, inspected against the spec, then a small batch to shake out assembly, packaging and quality issues before scaling.
- 11
Mass production and export
- INPUT: PILOT SIGN OFF
- OUTPUT: DELIVERED UNITS
- GATE: QUALITY CONTROL
Volume manufacturing with quality control, logistics, customs and delivery. From here your product is a supply chain, and we run it with you.
One product. Eleven stages.
You do not need to know which stage you are in.
That is our job. Fill in the intake form, and your first response will tell you exactly where your product stands and what the next stage costs.
Find out if your product can be built.
Ten minutes of your time. Seventy two hours to an answer.
Start with your product