“Digital Prototyping” in Product Design Reduce Costs and Increase Customer Satisfaction

Doing well the job of designing products may help companies reduce costs and gain more customer satisfaction. “Doing well” does not only mean designing excellent products, but also designing them efficiently. Innovations, which are technologies, in product design have been proved to contribute greatly to the cost-effectiveness of companies.

Take HTC Sweden, a flooring systems company, for example. Its grinding machines make luminous work surfaces from concrete. Prior to having innovations in product design, the company built physical models of new products, which costed up to $500,000 per prototype. Coping with the high costs, the company has launched a “digital prototyping” system, which has enabled its engineers to design, visualize and simulate their new products on computers. Such innovative change has reduced 97% of the product development costs.

BigToys, a company which makes earth-friendly custom playgrounds for communities and schools, is another instance. Experimental new products used to be physical, with the size was sometimes as big as a stadium. However, after implementing a digital prototype system, the company has been able to virtualize the design and experimental process. That has not only reduced costs, but also increased customer satisfaction because they have now been welcome to get involved in the design process itself.

Sources:

http://www.industryweek.com/articles/product_design_innovations_reduce_costs_and_increase_customer_satisfaction_21025.aspx