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Written by: Charlie Wood, Ph.D., Senior Director of Research and Development, Fast Radius

The product development cycle is inherently complex. It is full of detailed work and checks to ensure parts are designed—and ultimately manufactured—to function properly. So, the process requires a lot of time and effort to get it right.

But when custom manufacturing partners deliver inaccurate quotes or fail to communicate delays, engineers have an even more difficult time navigating aggressive deadlines and other challenges. Ultimately, innovation and the bottom line suffer.

We took a deep dive into the results of our latest report, Charting the Future of Custom Manufacturing, which surveyed 250 engineers, designers and procurement professionals about their pain points with custom manufacturing. The results highlight the inefficiencies hampering innovation and growth in manufacturing operations.

Today’s engineers need improved digital infrastructure to streamline workflows, enhance communication and manufacture state-of-the-art products that are more cost-effective. Read on—and view the infographic—to learn more.

Growing Pressure on Product Teams Limits Innovation

Design and development teams face growing pressure to deliver more in less time. This pressure makes engineers’ jobs more difficult and stifles innovation. 

• Shorter development cycles: Fifty-eight percent of respondents agree that product development cycles are getting condensed as the pace of innovation accelerates. The typical development cycle leaves little room for error, so when a custom manufacturing partner misses a deadline, engineers’ development timelines suffer from incremental challenges. These slips—small as they might be—cascade down the development cycle, reducing feedback and revision periods that are critical to ensuring product quality.
• Increasing costs: New product development is inherently expensive. But when manufacturers delay production, offer inconsistent product quality or communicate inefficiently, it accounts for hidden costs that further drive up expenses. Rising costs restrict engineers’ ability to improve products—and 52 percent of respondents agree, saying that reducing the cost of new product development would help them innovate more frequently.

Pain Points During Design and Development

Product teams face increased pressure to innovate faster, but current custom manufacturing practices and siloed systems are slowing down design and development processes. To enable rapid innovation and streamline the manufacturing process, engineers and product teams need agile partners. However, many of these partners are not able to keep pace for several reasons.

• Inefficient communication was the top pain point cited by respondents during design and development. Without a centralized platform for communication, engineers are forced to navigate burdensome cycles of back-and-forth communication with custom manufacturers—44 percent of respondents exchange more than 50 messages throughout the manufacturing process. In many instances, this inefficient or cumbersome process results in engineers losing important information and key specifications.
• Production delays are driving up costs and throwing off timelines, which has downstream effects for customers and partners. The majority of respondents (52 percent) said they learned about delays or errors in production after it was too late and missed their project deadlines for shipping. This lack of transparency into where parts are in production is costly and damaging—73 percent of respondents whose shipping deadlines were missed said these errors caused budget overages.
• Quality issues are a frequent occurrence in the custom manufacturing lifecycle, with 51 percent of respondents saying inconsistent product quality has impacted their bottom line in the past 12 months. A lack of feedback from custom manufacturing partners is contributing to this issue—47 percent said custom manufacturing partners rarely or never offer feedback on part designs. Poor quality control processes and operations from manufacturers are also likely to blame.
• A lack of a steady custom manufacturing partner can contribute to quality issues. When engineers work with the same partner over many projects, they learn each other's processes and communication styles, accumulating institutional knowledge. By contrast, companies face a steep learning curve every time they onboard a new partner. Thirty-two percent of respondents said they prefer to work with the partner that quotes the lowest price, while 24 percent are always trying new partners because they are never satisfied with results from their existing ones. Supplier turnover and constantly looking for a new partner or shopping for a lower price could end up costing more in the long run. Product quality and innovation are built through enduring relationships between customers and suppliers.

Operational efficiency, innovation and the bottom line take a hit when these issues persist. With rising pressure on product teams, it is time to optimize the design and development process to ensure product teams can deliver without costly errors and inefficiencies.

Streamline Manufacturing Processes with Cloud Manufacturing

Cloud manufacturing is quickly emerging as a centralized solution that unlocks more cost-efficient and agile capabilities. With a digital infrastructure, cloud manufacturing is a flexible and scalable platform that unifies all stages of the manufacturing lifecycle to mitigate design and development pain points. A cloud manufacturer is the partner engineers need to streamline manufacturing processes. By working with a single cloud manufacturing partner, engineers can improve part quality, increase transparency and feedback, and solve communication challenges.

View the full report to learn more about how cloud manufacturing can help reduce inefficiencies and drive innovation.