Do you need electronic design for your R&D? Are you considering outsourcing the electronic design services?
As an electronics design engineering company, Smart Electronics provides a detailed overview of the electronic design process which will help you to understand every stage of it. This article gives some tips and advice to make the process more time-efficient and beneficial for you.
A typical electronic design process for an electronic design engineering company is as follows:
- Considering a client’s initial concept
- Identifying an objective and refining the concept with the client
- Writing a brief – document specifying the scope of the proposed project in technical language
Every process includes a number of important stages. Each of them is discussed separately below.
The design of any product is critical to its manufacture and future success. To ensure the best possible results Smart Electronics implement a stepped approach to electronics design. This enables enhancements and customer feed-back throughout the product design period. For a helpful guide to electronics product development, non-disclosure agreements and examples of technical documentation see our Download page.
It is important to find if the company you want to partner with includes all the stages into their design and development process, to ensure the quality of the result. Smart Electronics uses this framework, to tailor an electronic design project to clients’ requirements:
Functionality, Requirements, and Specification
This is an important initial step where the design project has its foundation. The electronics design is discussed both technically and from end-users’ perspective, (important!) under a non-disclosure agreement. This discussion helps to build a scope of the project including the requirements and the performance. Moreover, on this stage the electronic design company is able to suggest additional features and potential issues that can take place with the design.
Proposal and Quote
When both sides, client and electronic design company, are satisfied with the brief, the project can be moved forward. Proposal is produced by the electronic design engineering company, as a document which summarises all specifications of the product. It needs to include all techniques or/and technology, which will be used in the project. From this point an approximate time-scale for the work can be made up, together with a quotation of the project costs and any up-front tooling costs for prototype building. (important!) With a lot of companies you can be charged for this process, but Smart Electronics provides our clients with a completely free feasibility study.
Prototype Design & Fabrication
On this stage, the actual designing work takes place, such as designing the electronics, developing firmware and programming software. It is important to ensure that the electronic design engineering company makes the prototype as close to the finished product as possible, to highlight any production or other issues on the early stages. Once a working electronics design prototype has been manufactured it is submitted to the client for evaluation. The project can then either move to the final stage or have additional features added to the electronics design based on client feedback.
Documentation & Handover
When the client is satisfied with the prototype, the project can be moved further. On this stage final amendments are made to the manufacturing documentation to ensure that everything is correct. All the manufacturing documentation is then handed to the client. It is important to ensure that there are no hidden fees or small prints in the documentation, trying to charge the client more.
Manufacture
Due to client demand Smart Electronics offers a manufacturing service. Our fundamental knowledge of the electronics product enables us to ensure quality and continuity of production which reduces the burden on the client enabling them to focus on promotion and sales. We can supply the electronics product fully boxed in custom packaging with manuals or CD. This is proving to be a very popular one-stop solution. For more information on documentation, design or manufacture please contact us.