Productization is the art and science of turning R&D projects into manufacturing ready products. Productization is the 99% perspiration after the 1% inspiration, the hard work to get a product from kinda done to completely done. It includes design for manufacturing and failure mode effect analysis early on as well as the extensive industrialization engineering effort at the tail end of the product introduction cycle, including test development, tooling, supply chain optimization and validation testing. Productization is neither glamorous nor easy; it doesn’t win awards at design shows. It often means living out of a suitcase at a remote factory. But in the end the result is a product that can be manufactured.
Examples of productization tasks
- Independent design assessment
- Design for manufacturabilty
- Cost reduction redesign
- Failure Mode Effect Analysis (FMEA)
- Production test development
- Supply chain optimization
- Design Validation Testing (DVT)
- Tooling support
