Product development in Australia

What product development actually involves

The stages most Australian projects move through, and roughly what happens in each.

1. Concept and feasibility

   Defining what the product has to do, who buys it, and roughly what it can cost to make. The point of this stage is to kill bad ideas cheaply, before anyone has drawn anything.

2. Industrial design

   Form, materials, ergonomics and how the product is used. Sketches and renders become CAD. This is the stage people picture when they say “design”, and it is usually the shortest.

3. Engineering and design for manufacture

   Turning an attractive shape into something that can actually be made repeatably and at a sensible cost. Wall thicknesses, draft angles, fasteners, tolerances, component selection. Most of the cost of a product is locked in here.

4. Prototyping

   3D printed or machined parts to test fit, feel and function. Expect several rounds. A prototype that works is not the same as a design that is ready for tooling.

5. Tooling and pilot production

   Injection moulds and other hard tooling are the single largest cash outlay in most projects, and changes after this point are expensive. A pilot run proves the tools before you commit to volume.

6. Compliance and certification

   Electrical safety and the Regulatory Compliance Mark, EMC, food-contact or therapeutic-goods requirements, packaging and labelling law. Which of these apply depends entirely on the product, and finding out late is costly.

7. Manufacture and supply

   Local or offshore, tooling ownership, minimum order quantities, quality inspection, freight and landed cost. Whoever holds the tooling holds the relationship.

Australian product development consultancies

Industrial design and product engineering firms, by state. Listed alphabetically within each state.

Choosing a consultancy

Questions worth asking before you commit to anyone.

• Do they engineer, or only design? Plenty of studios produce beautiful concepts and hand you a file no manufacturer can quote from. Ask to see a project they took through to tooling.
• Who owns the IP and the CAD files? Settle this in writing before work starts, not at the end. The same goes for who owns the tooling once it is paid for.
• How do they charge? Fixed price per stage, time and materials, or a retainer. Staged fixed pricing gives you defined points at which you can stop.
• Have they worked in your category? Compliance requirements for a kitchen appliance, a medical device and a children’s toy have almost nothing in common. Category experience is worth more than a general portfolio.
• What happens after handover? Production problems surface months later. Find out whether support is included, charged, or simply unavailable.
• Can you speak to a past client? The most useful question you can ask them is what went wrong on the project and how it was handled.