Costing of creating a new product.

Creating or inventing something new can be daunting at first, you might ask yourself how to design this idea, how much will it cost to manufacture or does this new product already exist?…

When inventing something the first advice would be to go on the internet a do a quick google search, use keywords to describe your invention or new product. You could also go on amazon and search, is this really a new idea or is it already a crowded market.

The last thing you want is to have no return on your investment because too many comparable products already exist. Saying return on investment because creating something new and designing it to a point where it can be manufactured is not something cheap.

You see when you include all the aspects of 3D design, prototyping, tooling, and manufacturing assembly, it quickly rises to a few tens of thousands of pounds or more depending on what you design. It is not easy to evaluate how much it would cost but today we are going to try to answer this common question that we often get asked:

Firstly, let us look at the different steps:

We would start with market research. Depending on how complicated your product is, it can take several days to try to find your competitors, understand the market and try to find similar products.

Secondly, we would try to answer some key questions:

• Does this new product fulfil the needs of the target market?
• Is this invention right for the moment?
• How can we make the product cost effective enough to maximize profits without losing quality?
• Is the return on investment good enough to pay back quickly?

Thirdly, we will work with you to define who is the end user, why does he need this product, how will the market receive it and is it fit for purpose?

Once we have answered all these questions positively then we would start designing in CAD (computer aided design) a 3D model of your product following the specifications and requirements you gave us. We would take into account the end user experience, how they will interface with the product, how easy is it to use, whether the manufacturing and material chosen are appropriate to meet specifications and the quality required. We would then meet with you to check the design and make sure you are happy with it; we would explain and review all aspects of the product. Only you can say if it is satisfactory and hits the spot.

A new 3D model would therefore be produced to be fit for the manufacturing processes chosen, based on the strength, quality and finish required from the product.

These steps are basic and more could be added if required such as simulation, cost estimation, prototyping and so on.

Now we have seen the steps of the design, lets discuss the cost:

We usually charge about £400 to £500 a day. That does not really mean anything if you do not know how much we can deliver in a day’s work, so let us look at some examples.

If you take a quite simple product like the CouchCoaster designed by D2M, the cost of the design was circa £15,000 for the design of the product. This was from the initial idea to something that can be manufactured including some prototypes.

At the other end of the cost spectrum, if you take a pipeline flow meter that we designed for one of our clients, it was more around the £150,000 mark. The design is more complex, it included the management of suppliers, prototyping, and some testing.

The cost can vary greatly based on a few factors:

• Complexity
• Support required
• Specifications required
• Product market

Therefore, when we get asked “how much would it cost to design my product,” there is no real easy answer.

I hope we managed to give you an idea on how the costing works when designing a new product. If you want to find out the actual cost to design your product, contact us for a free consultation and we can help you convert your concept to reality.