The product engineering world encompasses a wide variety of approaches, each one designed to help you bring products to market more efficiently.

From product performance to manufacturability to improving margins - the right engineering approach can be the difference between success and a costly flop.

An industry agnostic company intentionally accepts a wider variety of industries in their engineering portfolio. It’s not for the money - it’s an intentional engineering philosophy friendly to cross-industry innovation.

Products Need Manufacturability (DFM) and Innovation

Product based industries know that you need two elements to succeed, especially in crowded markets: design for manufacturability (DFM) and innovation.

Design for manufacturability focuses on the practical end of taking a product to market. It emphasizes predictable costs and timelines for your projects by anticipating potential pitfalls before the expensive manufacturing stage.

As the saying goes, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”

The Design for Manufacturing (DFM) Difference

As a base requirement, companies that don’t navigate the manufacturing process efficiently have no competitive chance, even with an innovative idea. When looking for a design partner, experience in DFM and taking products to market is a priority.

Now, if you’re in the market for a design and engineering partner to help elevate your product’s potential, DFM will help ease your manufacturing process, but it’s here an engineering company’s approach determines their ability to innovate your product.

Leveraging a Multidisciplinary Engineering Approach

As we mentioned a moment ago, there are some product companies that prefer to look for industry-specific design firms – like an engineering company that focuses on furniture. It’s all they do, and it’s their bread and butter.

This appeals to decision makers looking for simple fixes and a sense of process and reliability. What they don’t take into account is the creative limitations that often come with industry-specific companies.

An “industry agnostic” company like Creative Mechanisms brings experience from multiple industries to bear on your specific product. We’ve seen a wider variety of solutions that broaden our ability to create solutions for your specific goals.

It’s a driving force behind our ability to innovate beyond your competition. While they’re working from the same playbook, you gain access to the broader world of engineering solutions.

The Difference Between Industry Specialization and Feature Specialization

The idea of industry specialization is usually the more familiar concept in the business world. Understandably so - there’s a notion on specialization equates to more effective process and results. In the product engineering world, there’s a specific nuance that makes the difference.

Industry agnostic companies like Creative Mechanisms are not “generalists”. We are specialists in the core mechanisms, materials, and processes that the engineering world is built on.

From the details of plastics to creative uses for living hinges to capability testing, we bring a veteran depth of interdisciplinary applications. To put it simply, we specialize in the building blocks themselves.

This is what enables us to provide the most creative solutions to our clients’ hopes and challenges. With experience in a wider pool of creative engineering applications, you’re not just asking for a problem to be fixed - we’re here to deliver a product that performs better and is easier to manufacture.

Choosing Your Product Engineering Partner

If you are looking for a product design and engineering partner that is designed to help solve your problems and deliver innovative breakthroughs, we invite you to schedule a time to discuss your project.

We have over 35 years of experience helping companies take the lead in their industries with innovative, practical product design. We’d love to help you do the same.