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ENGINEERING SERVICES ARTICLE
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Top 5 Criteria to Select your Outsourcing Product Design (OPD) Partner
To enter an emerging market like India, a company’s success depends directly on the development of unique and customized products for the end-customer. This holds true whether an existing product is redesigned or a new product is
evolved specifically for this market. Both situations demand thorough knowledge on various parameters pertaining to the
target market. As described in the previous article “Engineering Design Considerations for Entering India Market”, these
comprise five parameters:
Cultural blend
Government regulations
Industrial standards
Competitors’ foothold
Prevailing manufacturing ecosystem
Understanding these parameters with less or no presence in the target
market is not only a challenge but is an expensive assignment
complete with various risk factors.
To mitigate these risks, outsourcing of product design has become a strategic initiative.This leads to the importance of identifying and
engaging with the right partner as it has the potential to develop into a
long term symbiotic relationship built on the foundation of trust, competency, and understanding.
We present five essential criteria for evaluating the right product design partner:
Product Design Needs’ “Fit”
When evaluating an OPD partner, check that they have the necessary competence in your industry. This is of paramount
importance as it will induce the vendor to deliver a holistic solution.
This was evident with one of our customers who needed an alternate design for a rotary filler machine that had limitation
in accessing machine parts for cleaning and servicing.
We looked at the requirement holistically and designed a concept with a new drive to operate from the top of the machine
in contrast to the prevailing industry standard of the drive system being at the bottom. This not only resulted in spacious layout, facilitating better cleaning and servicing but also enabled the customer to integrate this system better with the res t
of the production line, in addition to improving reliability and higher production capacity.
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This innovation design not only met the customer’s requirements but succeeded in ‘customer delight’ as well!
Experience in the client’s target industry
Check if your potential OPD partner has the necessary background in
your target market and knowledge about your product(s). This will
enable them to develop product concepts which will match with the
actual target customer needs.
One of our customer manufacturing capping machines wanted us to position their product for India market & requested us to suggest
design changes as per the native market need.
Having dealt with many companies in the food and beverage industry,
we had proactively suggested a drive specification and indexing mechanism for the machine that reaped a three-fold benefit: 35%
reduction in production costs, decreased time-to-market and better
market penetration relative to the competition. The quick solution would have been next to impossible if BWIR didn’t
have the knowledge on the product speed and through put of these machines as used by the Indian customer as per their
market demand. If you’re looking for additional information on how we can assist you with an OPD challenge, please register here
Presence in the geography
Check if your potential OPD partner has presence in your target geography – India. Their presence in the Indian
geography will enable you to design a product based on the manufacturing and vendor ecosystem available in India.
Your OPD partner will be able to design your product in India for India – based on the availability of the standard
material, purchase parts, manufacturing capability, testing procedures and facilities. With thorough knowledge of these
considerations, the product designed will be the best-fit for the market, reducing the overall time, effort, and costs.
Multi-disciplinary offerings
Engaging a partner for entering the Indian market is a long term strategy
and is really more of a relationship than a one-time transaction. Hence, it
is imperative for you to evaluate the credentials, expertise, knowledge and the multi-disciplinary offerings of your potential OPD partner across
the product design area. Your potential partner must be capable of
conducting tests to validate the performance of the product in the local
market environments.
Ultimately an end-to-end product design offering with manufacturing and testing support would be an ideal outsourcing product design
partner.
Barry-Wehmiller International Resources 8020 Forsyth Blvd., St. Louis, MO 63105 (314) 862-8000
[email protected] www.bwir.com
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Being a reliable partner
A partner’s reliability in a geography ensures the confidentially and intellectual property of any OPD project. This is
especially true for product design projects as they are research intensive involving specialists and R&D engineers. A ‘reliability check’ can be carried out by checking the partner’s long-term customer references. At BWIR, we have
customers for whom we have successfully completed product designs, product introductions and followed-up with after-
sales and support assignments. We have a trusted relationship with our customers. In addition to the five factors stated
above, there are other factors to consider in an outsourcing partnership, such as:
Certifications Availability of best-in class infrastructure
Financial health
Diverse skill sets and competency of the workforce
Compatible systems and processes
While the last few factors are suggestions, the 5 key criteria are must-haves for any outsourcing vendor for your product
design and launch to be successful in the emerging market.
Click the below links to download our pervious articles
Engineering Design for entering Indian Market
Product design challenges for India Entry
Outsourcing Product Design for India Entry
The writer is handling the business operations for the European Market and provides engineering and design consultancy for th e countries strategizing to enter emerging markets like India. You can reach him at [email protected] or the below contact number for any queries.
About Barry-Wehmiller International Resources
Barry-Wehmiller International Resources (BWIR) is a global provider of business and technology solu tions to the mid-market
manufacturing domain. With headquarters in St. Louis, MO., and global delivery operations strategically located to meet customer needs throughout the U.S., Europe, Southeast Asia and South America, BWIR offers world-class engineering services and enterprise
consulting solutions that enable its clients to achieve a competitive edge in their marketplace.
Vivek Maladkar
Head Business Development –Europe
Barry-Wehmiller International Resources Pvt Ltd.
101 Lilac Grove | Nottingham, UK NG9 1PF +44 (0) 115 967 8787 | DDI +44 (0) 115 907 9483 | fax +44 (0) 115 967 8707
Cell +44(0)7867 505 709
www.bwir.com
