1. Zebulon
Solutions, LLC
On Productization
Zebulon Solutions, LLC

2. Zebulon
Solutions, LLC
www.zebulonsolutions.com
Productization
Definition:
Productization is the process of transitioning products
out of the R&D lab and into stable manufacturing

3. Zebulon
Solutions, LLC
www.zebulonsolutions.com
About Zebulon Solutions, LLC
 Founded in 2009
 Acquired Technical Mandala, a Colorado design services
company specializing in electronics design, in 2012
 2100 sq. ft. office / lab in Longmont, CO
 Global customer base
• From startups to billion dollar multinationals
 Team averages 20 years of industry experience with 100+
successful production launches under our collective belts

4. Zebulon
Solutions, LLC
www.zebulonsolutions.com
Productization services
Design
Reverse Engineering
Industrialization
Supply Chain
Test
Redesign
Strategy
ProductionConcept

5. Zebulon
Solutions, LLC
www.zebulonsolutions.com
Design
Zebulon Solutions can do the full design, take on a small
piece or subsystem, or do the grunt work at the end to
finalize the design. In all cases we do everything with an
eye toward manufacturability, supply chain and cost.
 Design services:
• Concept design
• Systems architecture and engineering
• Detailed design
o Electrical / Mechanical
o Software / Firmware
o Mechatronics
• Design finalization
• Prototyping and pretesting
• Design Failure Mode Effects Analysis (DFMEA)

6. Zebulon
Solutions, LLC
www.zebulonsolutions.com
Redesign
Products often need to be redesigned for cost,
functionality, or manufacturability reasons
 Cost isn’t the only parameter, but it is a big one
 Analysis
• DFx: Design for Manufacturing / Assembly / Test / etc.
• Independent Design Assessment
• Failure Mode Effect Analysis (FMEA)
• Tolerance analysis
 Redesign
• Cost downs
• Proactive or reactive
• Board, subsystem or complete product

7. Zebulon
Solutions, LLC
www.zebulonsolutions.com
Reverse engineering
Analyzing competitors’ products to
understand performance, cost and
supply chain.
 Teardown services include:
• Teardowns
• Reverse engineering
• Supply chain reconstructions
 Teardowns can be used to analyze
the competition, avoiding IP issues,
and even to bring in buy
subsystems

8. Zebulon
Solutions, LLC
www.zebulonsolutions.com
Industrialization
Industrialization is at the core of productization, the
optimization of the processes, testing and tools that will
be used to manufacture the product
 Design validation testing
• Environmental and life testing
• Regulatory and safety
 Tooling
 Production test development
 Supply chain development
 Contract manufacturer selection
 Process optimization
 Process validation testing

9. Zebulon
Solutions, LLC
www.zebulonsolutions.com
Supply chain
 The supply chain should be designed into the product, not
optimized after the design is complete
 It’s called a supply chain for a reason
 Cost is only one piece of the puzzle. Other supply chain drivers:
• Where do the key components come from?
• Where will the product be shipped?
• Upside and downside volumes protection
• IP risks
 Supply chain services:
• Supply chain setup
• Qualifying vendors
• Selecting manufacturers

10. Zebulon
Solutions, LLC
www.zebulonsolutions.com
Test
 A test strategy is needed early on
• Where, when, how, and especially why to test
• Tradeoff upfront DVT testing vs. ongoing production testing
• Subsystem level test also needs to be considered
 Test services
• Design validation testing (DVT)
o Pretesting
o Program manage full DVT
• Production test development
o Test requirements generation
o Test system development
o Gauge R&R

11. Zebulon
Solutions, LLC
www.zebulonsolutions.com
Process optimization
 PVT is way too late to start on process optimization…
 The cost of process change for medical devices is
extremely high
 Process development should commence all the way back
in the design phase
 Use PFMEAs to find issues
 Product specific
 Use pretesting to find
issues
 Supply chain needs to be
taken into account too Courtesy of Vergent Products

12. Zebulon
Solutions, LLC
www.zebulonsolutions.com
Design For Excellence (DFx)
DFx is a key part of productization, but it needs to
be done concurrent to design, not as a checklist
after the fact
 DFx covers all the design fors:
• DFM: Design for Manufacturing
• DFA: Design for Assembly
• DFE: Design for Environment
• DFT: Design for Test
• DFT: Design for Regulatory
• Etc.
 DFx should be baked into the process
 But it also helps to have an extra set of eyes

13. Zebulon
Solutions, LLC
www.zebulonsolutions.com
Process Validation Testing (PVT)
While regulatory requirements tend to drive PVT for
medical devices, there are more mundane issues to
address as well
 A device may indeed be certified on a process that is certified and
still be problematic, expensive or both
 Process validation is more that just “run three batches”
 Issues to consider (and solve):
• Yield
• Early failure detection
• Costs
• Labor content
• Throughput
• Inventory stacking up
Courtesy of Vergent Products

14. Zebulon
Solutions, LLC
www.zebulonsolutions.com
Other productization tasks
 Product redesign for manufacturability / assembly /
testability
 Manufacturing strategy development
 Cost reduction redesigns
 Contract manufacturer selection
 Packout design and testing
 Software / firmware testing

15. Zebulon
Solutions, LLC
www.zebulonsolutions.com
Strategy
Zebulon Solutions complements its hands-on engineering
and supply chain expertise with big-picture strategic
consulting and even fractional executive services

16. Zebulon
Solutions, LLC
www.zebulonsolutions.com
Example: Inventory Management System
Scope:
 Strategic manufacturing
consulting
 Fractional VP of
Engineering
 Failure analysis
 Manage regulatory testing
 Status
• Supporting investor
discussion this week
• Ongoing strategic support
 Future tasks
• Complete redesign
• Supply chain optimization

17. Zebulon
Solutions, LLC
www.zebulonsolutions.com
Example: In-line Analytic Instrument
Scope:
 Design of all PCBAs
 Electronics systems
engineering
 PCBA testing and
prototyping
 Status
• Ongoing testing
• Redesign in
progress to add
new features

18. Zebulon
Solutions, LLC
www.zebulonsolutions.com
Example: Optical Touch Panel
Scope:
 Fractional VP
Engineering for 9
months
 On-site systems
engineer
 Electronics / firmware
optimization
 Tolerance analysis
 Production test
development
 Status
• Unfortunately the
customer went Chapter
7

19. Zebulon
Solutions, LLC
www.zebulonsolutions.com
Example: Cleantech Flow Battery
Scope:
 Strategic
manufacturing
consulting
 Process optimization
 Supply chain
optimization
 Generated and
managed RFQ process
to select a contract
manufacturer
 Status
• CM selection within
two weeks
 Future tasks
• Manage NPI process

20. Zebulon
Solutions, LLC
www.zebulonsolutions.com
Example: RV Aftermarket Accessory
Scope:
 Teardown of
electronics subsystem
• Developed skeletal
BOM
• Costed out the BOM
 Tested system to
recreate performance
specs
• Electronics
• Firmware
 Status
• Testing in progress
 Future tasks
• Rewrite software
• Redo PCBA design

21. Zebulon
Solutions, LLC
www.zebulonsolutions.com
Example: Baby Product
Scope:
 Started as design
finalization
• Added draft to plastics
• DFM analysis
 Expanded to include
• Extensive pretesting against
ASTM safety standards
• Redesign of key
components
• Generated 2D drawings and
complete BOM
• Qualified offshore tool shop
and molding operation
• Managed the tool builds
 Status
• In production

22. Zebulon
Solutions, LLC
www.zebulonsolutions.com
Example: Satellite Internet
Scope:
 Teardown 8
satellite internet
systems
 Includes 26 GHz
technology
 Developed:
• skeletal BOMs
• block diagrams
• process flows
 Provided analysis
 Status
• Complete

23. Zebulon
Solutions, LLC
Thanks
For more information on productization,
see our productization blog at
www.zebulonsolutions.com/productizationblog/
www.zebulonsolutions.com