Your Guide to the January 2020 Hudson Valley Manufacturer’s Workshop
(Want to register? Scroll to the bottom of the article for the link to register. There’s also a downloadable registration PDF).
Manufacturers, startups, and entrepreneurs know that market realities and the technology driving markets change all the time.
Some of these changes can impact a business in just a split second.
That’s why having one’s ducks in a row when moving from concept to being manufacturing-ready is vital to the success of a business.
While market forces may not be controllable, exercising as much control as possible by planning is within reach of every Hudson Valley business owner preparing to manufacture.
The Hudson Valley’s January 29, 2020 Product Manufacturing Workshop
Manufacturers of physical products, such as wearable medical devices, will find the Hudson Valley’s premier 2020 Product Manufacturing Workshop the area workshop for learning valuable information about product manufacturing.
Hosted in Kingston, New York by T-SEC partner Fala Technologies, an advanced manufacturer and a contract manufacturer, the January workshop is sponsored by Fuzehub.
FuzeHub serves as the statewide New York MEP center, supported by Empire State Development’s Division of Science, Technology & Innovation (NYSTAR).
Fuzehub offers a series of workshops with elite manufacturing partners across New York State.
At Fala Technologies, lean manufacturing principles are applied. Here, stored raw material awaits production.
Preparing to manufacture
Prospective manufacturers usually either outsource a product for manufacture to a contract manufacturer (often referred to as an OEM, or original equipment manufacturer) or will make the product in-house.
Either way, the process, systems, and documentation established can make the difference between success or failure.
When done correctly, owners can move from creating proof-of-concept prototypes, to a/b testing of prototypes, to manufacturing at scale, confident that they have covered all the bases.
OEM’s (Original Equipment Manufacturers) may provide businesses with multiple contract manufacturing services, including designs, rapid prototyping, 3D printing, reverse engineering, and machining. Pictured here is a technician working at Ceres Technologies, a T-SEC partner.
Successfully knowing how to do all that, though, is often dependent upon experience, and manufacturing experience is exactly the thing startups and entrepreneurs usually lack.
Even seasoned manufacturers are not always able to critically assess their product designs so that they reduce complexity and minimize process steps.
Whether you manufacture in-house or outsource to an OEM, you will have to make continuous improvements in every step and phase of your manufacturing process.
And that means you are going to have to have the right documentation and the right systems in place both of which will help you manage costs, mitigate risk and get you not only to market but, ideally, to profitability.
A workshop that helps you get your shop in order
The Hudson Valley’s January 29th Product Manufacturing workshop features experts who have experience training start-ups and early-stage innovators.
They will share their knowledge about the basics of design for manufacturability, lean product development and the fundamentals of planning.
The techniques they will share can ultimately position companies to identify potential manufacturability issues early on, thereby avoiding the lost time that can come with redesigns, which are often costly.
T-SEC partner Unlimited Tomorrow a manufacturer in Dutchess County, N.Y. that manufactures in house, makes prosthetics for young people using a revolutionary new HP 3D Printer (T-SEC funded) that prints true to life parts.
Hosted by Fala Technologies
“Fala Technologies is an advance manufacturer here in the Hudson Valley. When we designed our building, we designed it from lean manufacturing. Most manufacturers make a product and they have a production line.
When you go through our factory, what you’re gonna see is not machines lined up to make a production line, but you’re going to see a facility lined up where the dirty stuff comes in at on one end of the factory. And the clean stuff is on the other end of the factory.
When we make our parts, since we do development work, we’re always building different parts of different machines, depending upon what part is required.
We’ll use stainless, we’ll use aluminum. Or we use copper, brass, different types of stainless steels,” Fala owner Frank Falatyn recently explained.
Frank Falatyn owner of Fala Technologies shows off one of the thousands of beautifully machined products his shop produces.
Attendees will be offered day-long coaching, as well as lean manufacturing concepts, in a hands-on session designed to challenge participants so they can optimize their product and design for manufacturability, durability, and cost reductions. The goal is to provide participants steps to give their product and their company the best chances for success.
Build4Scale-NY: background
Fuzehub’s New York State-based program is called Build4Scale-NY and it is a state-level offering based upon the U.S. Department of Energy’s national program for helping manufacturers.
The course uses a blueprint provided by the previously mentioned U.S. Department of Energy’s Build4ScaleTM from its training modules focused on commercialization.
According to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Build4ScaleTM website, the training helps hardware innovators avoid the common pitfalls of product design by teaching them manufacturing design fundamentals in the early stages of prototype development.
Fala Technologies is a T-SEC manufacturing partner and hosts characterization equipment (A CMM) available for use on an as-available basis to qualified and vetted New York State manufacturers.
Per Fuzehub’s website, here’s the day’s roster:
Manufacturing 101’s workshop agenda
0930 – 1000 | Designing Your Product for X (Workshop Exercise)
1000 – 1045 | Developing Your Bill of Materials (Workshop Exercise)
1045 – 1100 | Break
1100 – 1200 | Developing Your Manufacturing Bill of Process (Workshop Exercise)
1200 – 0100 | Working Lunch: Leaning Your Product Design (Workshop Exercise)
0100 – 0130 | Moving from Alpha/Beta Prototypes to Manufacturing at Scale
0130 – 0200 | Design for Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (Workshop Exercise)
0200 – 0300 | Mentorship & Coaching: One-on-One with Instructors
Besides hosting the Manufacturing workshop, Fala Technologies runs a series of classes for area manufacturers in partnership with SUNY Ulster
Module descriptions
Designing Your Product for X
According to Fuzebhub’s website the following information sums up the workshop and details its agenda:
“This module helps prioritize your product design utilizing case studies and a workshop exercise. Each participant will identify, evaluate and prioritize designing their product for customer use, market acceptance, manufacturability, assembly, durability, reliability, installation, maintenance, logistics.
Developing a Strategic Bill of Materials (BOM)
The module provides the foundation for helping structure an intelligent bill of materials that not only lists all the parts and materials needed to create your product but also supports an accurate determination of your cost of goods sold, cash flow requirements, parts numbering, parts revisions/variations, lead-time estimates, quality tracing, quote timing, etc. Each participant will construct the foundation for their intelligent bill of materials during the workshop and can use it going forward as a product development planning tool.
Developing a Strategic Bill of Process (BOP)
The module provides a unique methodology for developing an intelligent bill of process, a step by step production map for assembling your product including the parts, tools, machines and operations needed to assemble a given product design. This includes a workshop exercise where each participant will map their production process and can use it going forward as a product development planning tool.
Leaning Your Product Design
The module provides a unique methodology for taking a critical assessment of your product design in an effort to reduce complexity and drive down costs. Each participant is guided through a “Parts Value Challenge” exercise that challenges your product design to minimize the number of parts, minimize the number of process steps, design out parts that commonly fail, and target multi-touch operations for process step reductions.
Moving from Proof of Concept to Alpha/Beta Prototypes to Production
The module addresses key questions to consider when designing and testing your next-generation prototype or product launch. The session will provide insight into the most common mistakes to avoid, and how to avoid the development of several prototype modifications.
Next-Generation Product Design Planning
The module provides a Manufacturing Risk Assessment to support your next-generation prototype or product launch. Participants will engage in a Design for Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (DFMEA) exercise that helps determine potential failures in their design, determine the potential for occurrence, severity, and detection, and through a unique scoring system determine the potential failures to prioritize for attention in their product development and test plan.”
GCSEN, which shares a campus with FALA Technologies is also a co-sponsor of the event.
Date:
Wednesday, January 29th, 2020
Time:
8:30AM-3:00PM
Workshop Location:
Fala Technologies
430 Old Neighborhood Rd
Kingston, NY 12401
CLICK TO REGISTER
Or, download the brochure: B4SNY-101Workshop