If you help filling it out just ask! Book a meeting here.

Learn more at: https://www.meetup.com/robotics-interest-group/

Bayard Design Chief Engineer Matthew De Remer will be speaking about Medical Robotics and human/robot interaction.

D2P is the Region’s Largest Design & Contract Manufacturing Trade Show

Entering it’s 3rd year at the Mohegan Sun Exposition Center, the Design-2-Part Show is the most efficient place to meet hundreds of high-quality American suppliers of custom parts, stock parts, and manufacturing services. From design and prototypes to production, finishing and assemblies – get the instant answers you need at this show.

The Mohegan Sun Show will exclusively feature 240 American suppliers that can help your business mitigate risk, shorten the supply chain, and get parts manufactured on time.

Southern New England Show Information

Meet us at The Mash-Up tomorrow Tuesday September 19 at @PolarPark along with @mass_tech, @MassHireCentral, @MassMEP, @MassRobotics, @WPI and @FORGEImpact!

Lots of acronyms and synonyms and kind-of-synonyms get thrown around in the case of hardware suppliers and understanding what kind you’re engaging in is very important to your business plans and bottom line. To muddle the point further some suppliers can fit all or some of these definitions or are open to different methods of engagement. These definitions can also help you understand at a high level what is being proposed.

ODM

• Original Design Manufacturer
• Responsible for Design and Manufacturing of a product 
• Typically retains IP rights and owns the tooling
• In some cases they are the most expensive long term option, but with low or no upfront costs and large minimum order quantities
• ODM usually handles “everything” so great for a team with low head count
• Used by many name brand companies for lower volume products

OEM or CM

• Original Equipment Manufacturer or Contract Manufacturer
• Customer typically retains the IP and typically owns the tooling
• May contract out assemblies (or whole products) to EMS firms
• May contract out engineering activities as well (That’s where we come in)
• Due to the labor, tooling and the like this has the most upfront cost
• Companies that do their own final assembly are OEMs. Think Ford, Tesla or Black and Decker. This can also apply to firms that do this work on contract or are “white label” firms. Think Amana.

EMS

• Electronic Manufacturing Service
• Customer typically retains IP and owns tooling
• Typically only makes a major component such as the PCB
• May also offer other services like box builds, wire harness fab, injection molding, program/test and final assembly (making them an OEM)
• Typically relies on the customer for Engineering support or customer identified Product Development firm (us!)
• Many OEMs still rely on EMS firms for components or assemblies (think back to Ford and the other examples)

After all that still somewhat confusing right? The big difference is engineering/design/IP. Engaging with a EDM means you outsource engineering and design to the manufacturer, but lose IP control. Engaging with an OEM/CM/EMS means needing to supply engineering and design support, but also retaining IP. IP retention is typically a key component to valuations.

Bayard Design does work-for-hire engineering and design work that allows you to retain all your IP. The end game is to right-size your company’s engagement with an OEM/CM/EMS (or even a ODM for specialized components). We have many suppliers that we’ve worked and can find the right one for you!

The average hiring process is 42 days long (source: SHRM.org). During that time action items are not being fulfilled and the team is burning hours interviewing candidates at an average of 9.6 hours per opening (source: Talroo.com). Once you have the candidate locked down the average salary is well into six figures with benefits adding another $23,857 (source: BLS.gov). Don’t forget headhunter or websites fees up to $38,009 (source: Indeed.com). All in this puts the year 1 cost well over $200,000 for only a single mid-career engineer!

What if you need a mechanical engineer, electrical engineer and firmware engineer? Or 2 mechanical engineers? Amortized, 4 engineers are now a $66,000+ monthly burn rate hit that ends only with painful layoffs.

Using consultants or Product Design as a Service (PDaaS) solves all of these issues. You’re only billed for the hours used. We can bring every discipline to the project without incurring painful burn rate hits. Burn rate can ramp up and down as required without any lose of institutional knowledge. Onboarding can be as quick as same week with minimum time commitment from the current team.

Want to talk about hitting your product development and engineering goals at minimal cost? Book a meeting with our team today!

Deloitte has a concise list of advice for established firms:

• Consider alternative suppliers: More than half of our most recent survey respondents said they previously relied on a single source for 75% of their chip supply. All of them are now pursuing alternative sources.
• Evolve broker relationships: In the past, medtech manufacturers had little need for brokers. Now, nearly one-third of respondents said they have reached out to brokers as an alternate source of supply. Some companies have turned to brokers because they don’t have any other way to acquire the semiconductors they need for their products. Additionally, brokers can provide safeguards against counterfeits, which has become more of a challenge since our first survey.
• Increase inventory: In the past, medical device manufacturers usually didn’t stock a large chip inventory. For example, 13% of respondents said they did not have a chip inventory prior to the pandemic. That has since changed. More than 70% of respondents said they have recently increased their semiconductor inventory levels.
• Focus on agility: Building speed and flexibility into component substitutions—through planning, manufacturing, and regulatory processes—could make it easier for manufacturers to switch to alternate suppliers when needed. Many companies are revalidating components to increase sourcing options even though the process can be cumbersome.
• Use digitization to enhance supply chain visibility: There are typically multiple tiers between a medtech company and the chip manufacturers. Since our 2021 survey, most companies have increased their multi-tier visibility. Increased visibility can help medtech companies identify issues more quickly, which can mitigate risk. Digitization of the supply chain can provide visibility from the suppliers all the way to the customer and help enable a quicker response. Advanced analytics could enhance the ability to be more proactive in every step of the supply chain.

Where does this leave start-ups? Simultaneously better and worse off than an established company:

• Identify and purchase critical components early in the design process and potentially at risk
• Identify and engage your ECM early in the design process so they can help manage procurement early
• Consider designing in multiple SMD pad arrays for alternative components if space allows
• Make sure supply chain is a regular topic in program review meetings

The consensus seems to be that things should be back to normal in 2024 and metal prices are already coming down – fingers crossed!

Find us at booth 450 with DCL Technologies! 

Register for the event here: https://bit.ly/3rqlXMA

• Electricity use in our offices and workshop will now come from 100% renewal sources
• We will continue to participate in the recycling program offered by our property owner
• Our plastic parts check list now includes a reminder to mark a recycling code on all plastic parts to aid in proper recycling
• Our founder continues to mentor green startups as part of the Clean Tech Open