Contract design and engineering for hardware products, from requirements through transfer to manufacturing.
- Disciplines
- Industrial design, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, embedded software, human factors
- Sectors
- Medical and life science, industrial, consumer
- Engagements
- Whole program, team augmentation, program recovery
- Structure
- Four phases, each quoted separately
- Ownership
- Client owns design files, source code, test data and tooling
- Contact
- info@nuproduct.dev
The proposal is signed.Now watch it get built.
Client portal New
Your whole job, live, in one place.
Every client gets a login. Read and accept the proposal there, then follow each phase against what was quoted: no status meetings, no digging through email.
- Each phase: quoted amount and time, planned and actual dates, percent complete, invoiced to date
- Clear to proceed: a yes or no for the next phase, with what is outstanding
- Issues that need an answer, change requests with cost and schedule impact, support tickets
- Deliverables, client-supplied items and a full event log
1Scope of work
| Discipline | Work performed | Tools and methods |
|---|---|---|
| Use case definition, requirements capture, user research, feasibility studies, cost modelling, regulatory pathway mapping | Field interviews, contextual inquiry, competitive teardown | |
| Concept sketches, appearance models, colour, material and finish specification, surface models for tooling, packaging | Sketch, foam and printed models | |
| Enclosures, mechanisms, thermal and structural analysis, tolerance analysis, ingress, drop and vibration design, drawings | SolidWorks, Creo, ASME Y14.5 | |
| System architecture, schematic capture, PCB layout, power and battery systems, analogue front ends, wireless, EMC pre-compliance | Altium, KiCad, BLE, Wi-Fi, LTE-M, LoRa | |
| Drivers and board support, control and signal processing, connectivity, secure boot, over-the-air update, hardware-in-the-loop tests | Bare metal, Zephyr, FreeRTOS, embedded Linux | |
| Task and use-error analysis, formative studies, summative validation, instructions for use | IEC 62366-1 | |
| Works-like and looks-like prototypes, test fixtures, verification protocols and reports, failure analysis | In house: 3D printing, bench-made PCBs, manual machine shop, electronics bench. Partners: cast urethane, soft tooling, short-run PCBA | |
| Vendor selection, design for manufacture and assembly, tooling review, pilot builds, work instructions, test procedures, transfer package | Contract manufacturer on-site support |
2Engagement types
- Requirements through production transfer. One point of contact.
- One or more disciplines working within the client's team.
- Assessment and completion of a stalled design or a failed test.
3Process
| Phase | Purpose | Outputs | Typical duration |
|---|---|---|---|
| Define the use case and requirements. | Use case definition, requirements, user research summary, cost model, go or no-go recommendation | 4 to 8 weeks | |
| Select an architecture and reduce technical risk on the bench. | Concept studies, system architecture, bench test results, cost model, program plan | 8 to 12 weeks | |
| Detailed design, built and tested in iterations. | Design files, alpha and beta prototypes, verification reports, design freeze | 3 to 9 months | |
| Transfer the design to manufacturing. | Tooling, pilot builds, line support, transfer package | 3 to 6 months |
- Each phase is quoted separately, with stated deliverables and price.
- The client decides whether to proceed at the end of each phase.
- Durations are typical and depend on scope.
- Design controls
- 21 CFR 820, ISO 13485
- Risk management
- ISO 14971
- Usability engineering
- IEC 62366-1
- Electrical safety and EMC
- IEC 60601, IEC 61010, CE, FCC
- Quality system
- The client's, or NU procedures
- Records kept
- Requirements, design reviews, test reports with raw data, bill of materials with second sources, change log
- The client owns design files, source code, test data, tooling and vendor relationships.
- A non-disclosure agreement is signed on request before information is shared.
- Work samples are available on request.
- Enquiries are answered within two working days.
6Contact
State what is being built and its current status. A few sentences is sufficient. info@nuproduct.dev