11-04-2018
At the start of every new product, you are faced with a choice: do you develop something new and fully customer-oriented; do you use a Commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) product; or do you take the hybrid solution: standard product in combination with your own development.
Depending on the type of company, the desired "time-to-market", the internal knowledge and know-how, each of these solutions can be the right one. However, each of these has pros and cons. Here are a few points that can help you make the right choice:
1. Fully Customer focused
An advantage of this method is to keep control with regard to future desired changes and/or necessary adjustments. However, this method also requires the highest NRE investment; this is because they are developed from scratch and, depending on the complexity, can have a longer “time-to-market”.
2. Using a COTS
This method generally entails low costs, because virtually no hardware development is required and therefore also ensures a very short "time-to-market". Less pleasant is the great dependence on the supplier/manufacturer of the chosen product. There is often little or no control over future adjustments to the product. Think of internal technical adjustments, but also mechanical changes.
3. Hybrid approach, existing product in combination with our own development
By using, for example, a SOM module, in which a large part of the electrical solution has already been incorporated, one only needs to do technical development on the implementation of the customer-specific part of the product. The result is an acceptable “time-to-market”, whereby the end product also contains customer-specific properties. A disadvantage here can again be the dependence on manufacturer/supplier. It is therefore advisable when faced with this choice that they choose a product from a manufacturer that is active in the industrial B2B market.
If you are also faced with such a choice, please contact us (088 - 011 02 02 or via our callback request) to find the most suitable solution for your new idea (and future product).