Idea that requires manufacturing/assembly... any guidance?

[Scary Larry]

Hi everyone.

A quick introduction, as this is my first time posting here: I just graduated college a few years ago with a business/finance degree and currently work an office job. I’ve been wanting to start my own business for awhile now and have had a few ideas, but nothing that was ultimately actionable. I’ve had a new idea recently that’s slightly different than my previous ones... all my previous ideas were web/internet based, whereas my current idea requires an actual physical product (with electrical components) to be made/manufactured.

As I’ve started thinking more and more about this, I’ve realized that I have no clue how I could actually make this happen.

The product I have in mind is relatively simple, consists of 3-4 basic electric components assembled together. More specifically – a Pressure-Sensitive Resistor connected to a circuit board connected to a small speaker. When there is no pressure applied to the resistor, the circuit board is programmed to have the speaker ‘beep’ at set intervals. From my limited (but ongoing) research, it seems like from a production standpoint I would need the components, a process to assemble them, and a process to program the circuit board. (Disclaimer: I was a finance major, and know relatively little about electrical engineering)

I guess my main question is... where would I go from here? I’ve poked around on sites like Alibaba and have found manufacturers who can supply the required components, but would I need a separate company to assemble them?

At the very least, I’m trying to figure out a “game plan” in terms of what I would need to do in order to make this idea a reality. Also, as I mentioned above, I’m by no means an expert in electrical engineering so if someone knowledgeable in the field would like to poke holes in my idea, please feel free. Even if this doesn’t ultimately work out, I’m interested in learning how the process of turning an idea into a physical product would work.

Any guidance/suggestions would be much appreciated. Thanks!

[Fulcrum]

Welcome Scary Larry.

So you've designed a "noise maker". I'm not making fun of you or the concept, I'm just trying to think where something like this can be applied.

Rather than focusing on the production of the unit, do the following:
1) Find a niche that this product can serve.
2) Approach a few companies about having them test a few prototypes.
3) Build your prototypes. Can be done in conjunction with step 2.
4) If prototypes pass, have all the engineering side of things taken care of. This is important for liability reasons.
5) If step 4 is positive, begin marketing and building more units.

FWIW, you could probably build the prototypes on your kitchen table. You're looking for functionality at this point, not aesthetics or future cost reduction.

[Blessed]

Like Brad says - the first thing you need to do is assemble your idea at the kitchen table or the workbench in the garage or.... and then approach the companies you would like to sell the idea to.
You also need to do some research and see if what you've developed in your head already exists.

[Scary Larry]

Fulcrum & Blessed - Thanks for the responses.


So you've designed a "noise maker". I'm not making fun of you or the concept, I'm just trying to think where something like this can be applied.

Essentially, yes. Nothing groundbreaking or revolutionary, but I believe what I have in mind has the potential for modest success... at least enough for me to look into taking it past the "just an idea" phase. I've checked and have been unable to find anything already on the market that's similar.

I figured developing a prototype would be somewhere on the near-term radar. As mentioned in my initial post I'm not an electrical guy, and developing a prototype of this would seem to require at least a basic amount of electrical engineering know-how. It doesn't seem to be *too* complicated, and I plan on scouring through Google tomorrow to see if I can figure out enough to accomplish this, but if anyone knows any sites or references that could be helpful please let me know.

On a separate note - it sounds like both of you are suggesting I license/sell this to an established company for manufacturing & sales? Is that correct? Originally I envisioned being in control of the entire process, but the more I think about it I would probably end up in way over my head there.

Thanks again for your help, appreciate the responses!

[Blessed]

The only reason I would suggest selling your idea is because manufacturing is an expensive and complicated world. Especially if you don't already have a factory in place to begin manufacturing something. It's not impossible - just pretty tough. My husband works in the manufacturing field and it's not uncommon for him to authorize $100,000 to simply repair one component of a piece of equipment essential to the manufacturing process. That's a lot of capital - I can't imagine spending that much on a weekly basis to keep a factory running. Not to mention all the start-up costs. Mind you, these are huge plants that turn out millions of dollars worth of product, where an hour of downtime can cost $250,000 or more in lost production, but you don't typically see profitable small manufacturing businesses.

The other option would be to find a small manufacturer somewhere that would build your product for you - in the past my husband worked for a company that produced their own product and then contracted out to produce a couple other people's product too. So that's an option too.

However - I'm not an electrical engineer - that would be more in my Dad's line of work... I just build business cards and design billboards and such :) and I happen to be married to a man with a mechanically genius mind who keeps coming up with new ideas of products that would be awesome to sell... if only he could get past the manufacturing hurdle, and before that the patent process, and if only he had more time to put a proper prototype together and... anyway you get the picture! We have two kids, he works 50-70 hours a week and is going to school again - most things don't leave the notebook paper stage right now! Maybe one day...

[Fulcrum]

Rarely do I recommend that you license or sell your idea. Some do and some don't yet I've seen both groups succeed as well as fail.

From my own personal experience:

I've had just about everybody tell me to farm out (outsource) all manufacturing of new product even though I have the equipment to manufacture. With enough time I could setup another shop elsewhere for under $5,000.

For yourself, if you can come up with a working design (you may need an electronics guy to help) you could probably setup a small facility for very little. You don't need a wave soldering machine to produce low volume circuit boards. A simple, high quality, soldering iron, some 70/30 solder, a small high speed drill press (Dremel type), oscilloscope (this piece can be expensive but deals do come up), digital multimeter, and a room with good ventilation/fume hood. To start, I would farm out the production of the case and circuit board while doing all assembly and testing in house.

Again, this is just my way of doing things as I prefer to make "stuff".

[will.i.earn]

Hey I had a friend who followed through his gut feeling, and just like you he needed to fiddle with hardwar

Be warned, it's a scary and very challenging path to take. Indeed the journey is very expensive. But if you really have done your research and is sure that there is sufficient market/niche for what you're going to build, it's also extremely rewarding.

First is you have to check for patents. And file your own if your idea is unique

Apply and hopefully get accepted to a startup hardware accelarator like http://www.bolt.io/ Unless you have boatload of cash to burn.

Connect with people who can refer you to factories in China to build your device. Here's an example Printed Circuit Board Assembly (http://www.bittele.com/)

The toughest part is surrounding yourself with a smart bunch of people that are experts in hardware, which considering you're not an engineer - will be really tough.

Good luck!

[Fulcrum]

Connect with people who can refer you to factories in China to build your device. Here's an example Printed Circuit Board Assembly (http://www.bittele.com/)

I don't understand this. Why, when the word manufacture is brought up, do people right away think of outsourcing to China? Sure you can get bulk production cheap (it sure ain't fast and quality can be hit or miss), but the OP needs a prototype built - not 10K+ units.

[TheDadnator]

Just a couple of thoughts:

For figuring out the workings of the circuit board, have you considered going to a local community/technical college that teaches electronics? I have found that the instructors in these classes welcome real world "projects" for their students to work on. If you're worried about having your idea stolen, just explain the basics of what you want to happen, i.e.: when this switch is open then I want the board to tell this buzzer to go off for x seconds" etc. Just don't give your whole business plan and dream for what this will do to change the world.

For manufacturing I suggest you search around your area and see if there are any manufacturing facilities that exist mainly to provide work for special needs people. I know of three within 75 miles of where I live, so I wouldn't think they are too uncommon. two of them provide work for people who are mentally and/or physically disabled folks. Their goal is not to be a high profit business, but to provide work for these people. Another specializes on employing blind people. All three facilities, are constantly looking for new work they can do (simple assembly is a big part of it). Ask around, check with your chamber of commerce.

Good luck

[ilik]

i'm from electronics world.
there are tons of companies which will receive your project file and manufacture Printed Circuitboard for ~10$ each.only first order will cost ~500$. you can buy electronics components at Digikey.com and send them to the factory where they will solder everything on precision machines and even assemble them into case housings if you provide one. every additional task will add $$$ to it. i do not believe your noisemaker will do anything on a market but you are an economist and economists have their own vision of sniffing out shortages of product and delivering that product in that exact time and price where it is so needed. you will have to hire (or fool a student and give promises of billions) electronics engineer and pay $$$ to design it. also hire mechanical engineer to design a housing. both will give you design files.then you send design files to factory. they will produce it. and will send it to you. selling is your field i can't teach you anything with that.