Here is a question that we answered in the interrupt slack channel afterwards From the concept to the start: What does it take to build and send a new device Podium discussion. We share the answer in our blog to make it available to a wider audience.
How many iterations do you recommend from “I have a working MVP” for scaling 1 to 10 units up to thousands in production?
The number of iterations product and company dependent, but there is a general formula that is generally followed: the “NPI process. ““ I will paint wide brush strokes here – much more information about this process is available On our website And around the web.
The NPI Process defines several build events/levels and you can consider them as iterations with which you can scale from individual, tailor -made units to mass production.
- Proto (Your working MVP)
- Possibly
- Building small batches of work -like and looking prototypes for internal development and validation
- In general, they do not take care of things like cosmetics, but use 3D printed parts or ground parts instead of dye castings, etc.
- Tests are a secondary problem; They call up test stations and collect data, but can hand over any unit on the line, regardless of the pass/fail status
- Small quantities: 5-50 units, however, varies depending on the company
- DVT
- They are pretty solid in design, they are working on the improvement DFM and make final design changes
- Cosmetics may not be there, but if possible you should use production -related parts and work things like water deportation, etc.
- They carry out test stations with realistic limits to understand (and improve) the process income
- These units are usually used for certification efforts, reliability tests and environmental tests – the design must be good enough to carry out these efforts.
- 2-5x more units that were built as EVT-Z. B. 200 units in 20 units-build charg
- PVT
- They blocked and made the design. Now focus on the tuning of the manufacturing process, improving the yield + throughput, etc.
- All finished parts are used (e.g. use custom work parts and no longer milling/printing)
- These units are usually more “operational” (you can sell them)
- No significant changes to the design at this stage (if there are major changes, you have another DVT event and not PVT)
- This will often be a lot more units than earlier builds – maybe 10% of their first mass production run
- Mass production
- We build units for shipping to customers
- There is still an effort to shorten the cycle time, improve the yields and add the test cover to remedy “flight”.
In every phase, you refine your product design and your manufacturing processes and build up ever larger amounts of units. In an ideal world, they would move smoothly through the process. It is more likely that you have two events. And they often hope for a DVT event, but they can two ends if there are larger design changes (especially if there are certification challenges or reliability problems).
Three events at a certain stage are not unknown … but these development construction are expensive. They are certainly better off to spend more time to improve the design between two build events than they storm through the process and need a third party.