Development process: From the idea to the product

The path from idea to market with an electronic product is not easy. High technical and regulatory requirements have to be met under cost and time pressure. There are strong interactions between the requirements right from the start. Customised solutions are required, the adaptation of which becomes increasingly expensive and complex as development progresses. The effort involved is high.

es:serve is our solution that allows you to outsource development tasks. By outsourcing these development processes, you can concentrate on your core competences and rely on the fact that the development is carried out carefully. We reduce the cost of development, making it more affordable and accessible.

Preparation

Concept

Hardware

Prototyping

Software

Validation

Production

In-Life

Preparation

Objective: Identification of product requirements and definition of the project framework in terms of time, finances, personnel and service providers

Activities:

  • Market & problem analysis: Analysis of market needs, competitive analysis, identification of opportunities and risks
  • Product strategy and roadmap development: Definition of the product vision and solution
  • Systematic consolidation: Consolidation and prioritisation of requirements and relevant data. Description of the project framework and definition of requirements and acceptance criteria
  • Economic and technical feasibility analysis: Assessment of technical and economic feasibility, risk analysis
  • Stakeholder-Management: Identification and communication with relevant stakeholders, creation and management of tenders for external service providers.

Effort, resources, stakeholders:

  • Resources required: Relevant information
  • Effort: Relatively inexpensive to implement and great leverage to optimise the overall project costs
  • Stakeholder: Customers and end users, product management, project management, consultants
Ressources

VDI 2225

Technical and economic design

ISO 9001

Technical and economic design

VDI/VDE 2206

Technical and economic design

Concept

Objective: Creation of a block diagram, development of a solution approach and, based on this, a rough cost estimate for the development and production of the electronics.

Activities:

Detailed description of the functional requirements:

  • Electronics: Specification of the electrical components, wiring diagrams, energy requirements.
  • Software: Software architecture, interfaces, functionality, security requirements.
  • Mechanics: Mechanical constructions, materials, tolerances, mechanical load capacity.
    Consideration of performance requirements both during normal operation and in the event of faults.
    Sustainability criteria
 
  • Sustainability aspects: Integrate into the requirements
  • Environmental conditions and effects: Definition of the environmental conditions in which the product is used
  • Compliance requirements: Definition and documentation of legal and regulatory requirements.
 
  • Development of a block diagram: Darstellung der functional components and their interactions.
  • Development of a rough solution approach based on the block diagram, definition of the main components and their specifications.
  • Rough cost estimate: Costs for components, development effort, prototyping and production.
  • Discussion of the technical feasibility and Identification of challenges.

Effort, resources, stakeholders:

  • Resources required: Relevant information
  • Effort: Relatively inexpensive to implement and great leverage to optimise the overall project costs
  • Stakeholder: Customers and end users, product management, project management, consultants
Elektronik Entwickler/in am Computer erstellt Schaltplan

If pre-development is required: Research on technologies, technology assessment, feasibility studies, preliminary investigations

Electronics development

Goal: Creation of production data for the electronics

Pre-development

  • Identification and combination of partial solutions: Identify partial solutions based on the block diagram and combine them into an overall solution using morphological analysis.

 

Circuit diagram development

  • Functional structure: Around the identified main components.
  • Identification of critical signals and supplies: Ensuring signal and power integrity.
  • Modelling and simulation: Critical components for validation.
 

Layout development (PCB design)

  • Mechanical structure: Planning and structuring of the design.
  • Placement of the components: Strategic arrangement on the printed circuit board.
  • Design of the connections: Design of the electrical connections between the components.
  • Simulation and calculations: For verifying the layout.
  • Production data creation: Creation of the necessary production data (Gerber files, parts lists).

Effort, resources, stakeholders:

  • Resources required: Software for circuit and PCB design and simulation
  • Effort: High personnel & time expenditure, error-prone process step, high demands on expertise and quality assurance  
  • Stakeholder: Electrical engineer(s), project management

If design is required: Design of the mechanical components and the housing, simulation if necessary

Prototyping

Goal: Production of a prototype

Activities:

Procurement

  • Summarise purchase order
  • Strategic purchasing: evaluation and selection of suitable suppliers (quality, costs, delivery time)
  • Operational purchasing: handling daily procurement activities and ordering processes
  • Monitoring of order confirmations and delivery times
  • Incoming goods inspection: checking for completeness and quality, documentation, storage

 

Production of the prototype

  • Solder paste printing: Application of the solder paste to the circuit board.
  • SMT (Surface-Mount Technology) assembly: Automatic placement of the surface-mounted components.
  • THT (Through-Hole Technology) assembly: Manual or automatic placement of through-hole mounted components.
  • Reflow soldering: Carrying out the reflow soldering process to fix the SMT components.
  • Hand soldering: Manual soldering of components and connections that cannot be soldered automatically.
  • Housing 3-D printing: Production of the housing using 3D printing.
  • Cabling and module integration
 
Testing the prototype
  • Carrying out functional tests and measurements to validate the electrical and mechanical properties of the prototype.

Effort, resources, stakeholders:

  • Resources required: Knowledge of suppliers, equipment for prototype production, equipment for measurements 
  • Effort: Personnel & time expenditure for work steps, material expenditure, consumables, equipment costs
  • Stakeholder: Purchasing, accounting centre, production, laboratory staff
Prototype Soldering

Embedded Software Development

Objective: Development of specialised software solutions for electronic systems. The focus is on the integration of hardware and software to maximise system performance, safety and reliability.

Activities:

Pre-development

  • Software project & creation of software documentation
  • Set up version management
  • Errata sheets & consolidation of documentation
  • Creation of an architectural plan and a module design
  • Selection of libraries
 

Implementation

  • Low-Level:

    • Development of I/O wrappers and low-level drivers.
    • Bootloader development.
    • Event management, cycle and time control.

  • Mid-Level:

    • Middleware development.
    • Communication stacks.
    • Storage and file systems.
    • Security.
    • Monitoring and diagnostics.

  • Application Level:

    • Development of controllers and observers.
    • Data processing and algorithms.
    • State machine (state machine).
 
Conclusion
  • Module tests, integration tests, documentation, creating data sets

Effort, resources, stakeholders:

  • Resources required: Programmable device (prototype) and IDE 
  • Effort: High personnel & time expenditure, error-prone process step, high demands on expertise and quality assurance  
  • Stakeholder: Software engineers, electrical engineer(s), project management

Validation & Calibration

Objective: To ensure that the entire system fulfils all requirements and specifications and to fine-tune the system components to ensure optimum performance and measurement accuracy.

Activities:

System validation

Testing of the entire system to ensure that all requirements and specifications are met. Checking the performance and reliability of the system in the real operating environment and under real operating conditions. Identification of faults and deviations from the desired behaviour.

System calibration

Adjustment and fine tuning of the system components. Calibration of sensors, actuators, filters and controllers to ensure measurement accuracy and system performance.

Effort, resources, stakeholders:

  • Resources required: Tools for validation and calibration 
  • Effort: High personnel & time expenditure  
  • Stakeholder: Software engineers, electrical engineer(s)

Go-To-Market

Objective: To offer the developed system on the market.

Activities:

Preparation

  • Certification and declaration of conformity: Ensure that the product fulfils all required certifications and declarations of conformity.
  • Documentation and labelling obligations: Creation and management of all necessary documentation, ensuring correct product labelling in accordance with legal requirements.
  • Extended product responsibility: Compliance with extended product responsibility regulations, including membership of WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive).

 

Production

  • Strategic supplier selection: Selection of suitable suppliers for components and PCB production.
  • Electronics manufacturing service provider (EMS): Integration and assembly of all components by EMS service providers.
  • Implementation of acceptance and test concepts.
  • Final Assembly: Final assembly of all modules and systems.
  • Lifecycle management/obsolescence management: Product life cycle management and proactive measures to manage component obsolescence.

Retail

  • Warehouse management: Management of stock levels, taking into account the expiry date of hardware components, efficient stock management to minimise storage costs and avoid overproduction.
  • Obligations to provide information in retail: Compliance with statutory information obligations when selling the products, provision of all necessary information for end customers and trading partners.
  1.  

Effort, resources, stakeholders:

  • Resources required: 
  • Effort: Personnel & time expenditure, certification costs, production costs, storage costs, penalty costs  
  • Stakeholder: Production, purchasing, project management, product management

In-Life Development

Objective: To ensure continuous support and further development of the product during its life cycle.

Activities:

Series production support

  • Continuous monitoring: Monitoring product performance and reliability in the field.
  • Customer support: Provision of technical support and maintenance for customers.
  • Error analysis and corrections: Investigation and rectification of problems that occur during operation.
  • Regular updates: Provision of firmware and software updates to improve functionality and security.
  • Bug fixes and feature enhancements: Fixing bugs and introducing new features based on user feedback and market requirements.

Obsolescence management

  • Component monitoring: Monitoring the availability of parts and components.
  • Proactive measures: Planning and implementation of measures to manage component obsolescence in order to ensure the long-term availability of the product.
  • Spare parts strategy: Development of a strategy for the provision of spare parts.

Design Refresh

  • Updating the design: Regularly review and update the product design to integrate new technologies and components.
  • Performance improvements: Implementation of improvements based on customer feedback and technological advances.
  • Cost optimisation: Review and optimisation of production costs through design changes and material adaptations.

Effort, resources, stakeholders:

  • Resources required: All resources of the previous development
  • Effort: Personnel & time expenditure, know-how  
  • Stakeholder: Electrical engineer(s), project management, product management
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