Honed over thousands of projects and decades in business, the Motion Solutions Phase-Gate process streamlines product design and manufacturing.
Precision motion control systems can be challenging to design and build. That’s why outsourcing engineering and manufacturing of motion subsystems can be so appealing. When it comes to picking a vendor, though, the devil is in the details. For maximum profitability, a product needs to not only perform but to also reach market as quickly as possible. That’s why you need a partner able to design a precision prototype and immediately ramp up to volume manufacturing without any wasted time. Motion Solutions has a track record of success doing just that, courtesy of our Phase-Gate process.
When we launched our engineering services division more than 25 years ago, it became clear that conventional product lifecycle management (PLM) tools couldn’t meet our needs. Motion Solutions produces thousands of units of precision motion equipment annually. We needed to codify a framework that would enable us to do that flawlessly. Just as we design precision motion systems, we created our custom five-part Phase-Gate process. This development framework formalizes every step from planning to production, eliminating pinch points, fostering collaboration, and streamlining every task.
[Editor’s Note: This article provides a brief summary of the Motion Solutions Phase-Gate production process. For more details, including example of how we used the process to serve the needs of the customer with a rush project, see our whitepaper here.]
Figure 1: The Motion Solutions Phase-Gate Process enabled us to design a drop-in replacement for a customer that outperformed their previous vendor, moving from design through volume manufacturing in a fraction of the time normally required.
A look at the phase-gate process
The framework encompasses five phases:
- Phase 1: Project Planning
- Phase 2: Preliminary Design
- Phase 3: Detailed Design
- Phase 4: Prototyping
- Phase 5: Production
Each phase includes tasks designed to prepare for activities in subsequent phases so that there is no wait time. Critical activities like testing, design review, and release of bill of materials (BOM) are built into the schedule in a way that best expedites the process. When the time comes to build prototypes, the necessary parts are already in house. When the design is ready to move to production, customer approval has already been secured and everything that Production needs has been supplied.
The Motion Solutions Phase-Eight process enables our team of expert engineers and technicians to rapidly and reliably ramp up projects from design through volume production. Whether you need a custom solution, a drop-in replacement for an existing part, small modifications to stock products, or help turning a problem prototype into a volume product, Motion Solutions is here for you.
To see our phase-gate process in action, read our whitepaper. To learn more about Motion Solution and how we can help you, contact us at [email protected].
