WILD has become an accelerator for innovation projects thanks to a clearly defined product development process, agile methods and strong partnerships. After all, complex product development thrives in an environment where speed is systematic.

When developing complex high-tech products, innovation power is not everything. What is really essential is the ability to take a solid idea and turn it into a marketable product in a reliable and efficient way, and in the shortest time possible. This is precisely the focus of the WILD Group‘s industrial engineering process, which it has consistently modernised and parallelised in recent years. The objective is to bring customer products to serial production quickly and cost-efficiently, without detours and without ”happy engineering“.

FROM AN IDEA TO A SERIAL PRODUCT
WILD accompanies product developments in five structured phases: pre-project, concept, design, realisation, and transfer to series. The entire process is geared towards efficiency and transparency. Being a development and manufacturing partner, it is in WILD‘s very own interest to bring customer products to serial production quickly and reliably. ”We place our focus on targeted, value-oriented engineering. We are therefore not in competition with our internal development department but instead a meaningful addition to it. That is why we involve all relevant disciplines already during the first workshops, allowing us to assess product ideas from different perspectives. We systematically establish the requirements during the pre-project phase, further refining them in each subsequent phase. Quality gates and clear checklists help ensure that we avoid unnecessary delays and costs. Only those products that have a valid business case and pass the feasibility test will be cleared for the concept phase after pre-project. This brings forth resilient concepts, for which manufacturability, assembly cost and process risks have been timely taken into account, the focus remaining on the business case“, stresses Michael Reissig, Head of Development at WILD. This intensive parallelisation guarantees short development times, saves costs and increases the quality of implementation.

PHASE 0: PRE-PROJECT
THE BUSINESS CASE GETS A REALITY CHECK
Before a project begins, the engineering team gets together with the customer and discusses whether their idea is feasible. WILD usually lays the cornerstone for successful projects in workshops, often with the involvement of partners such as the research centre Silicon Austria Labs (SAL) or the Graz University of Technology. Together, they carry out the requirement management and an analysis of funding options to hedge technical risks.

Another welcome guest during this early phase is WILDDESIGN, a globally operating design agency focusing on medical design and usability. ”Only designers who are  familiar with market requirements and user expectations, and who are allowed to contribute to the development process as early as possible can come up with suitable  solutions and, ultimately, generate excitement. With its extensive expertise and long-standing experience, WILDDESIGN bolsters WILD‘s development process in the area of user interface and casing design“, explains WILDDESIGN CEO Marc Ruta.

A current example is a Japanese industrial group that is work together with WILD on adapting an optical measuring instrument that has so far only been sold in Asia to the European market. ”The requirements of European users differ from the previous concept. That is why we  scrutinise numerous details together with WILDDESIGN and develop a new, user-centred design that forms the basis for the entire  subsequent product definition“, says Michael Reissig.

PHASE 1: CONCEPT
OBJECTIVE ASSESSMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS
The concept phase is equally crucial. ”As a rule, over 80% of the production costs are defined in the early phases of product development. A-samples and B-samples of the product already result in design decisions that will have a direct impact on the serial production costs“,  stresses Manfred Ninaus, Value Manager at the Graz University of Technology. Therefore, there‘s a joint effort to establish at a very early stage which functions actually deliver a true added value, which requirements are critical for a device‘s function and business case and what an economically viable solution could look like. ”The premise here is to understand how important a function is to the customer – that is, in terms of functionality in proportion to the cost of the function“, Ninaus explains. To achieve that, a method has been developed using the VMCoach software platform to evaluate every optimisation idea as to its cost-saving potential AND its impact on customer benefit.

”Together with Manfred Ninaus, for instance, we were able to identify a 40% cost-saving potential in connection with an optical device for the semiconductor industry because we consistently questioned each function with regard to its actual customer value,“ recalls Michael Reissig. Moreover, ”thanks to our agile value engineering approach and the use of the AI-based VMCoach platform, it took us only three days to highlight various possible solutions in interdisciplinary team workshops,“ says Ninaus.

Another example cited by Reissig is a spectrometer, for which the customer defined the product and process requirements together with WILD very early during the concept phase. “We asked ourselves: How does that impact the manufacturing process? How will we eventually manage to achieve the envisaged costs? Using tools like Codebeamer, we developed a professional methodology to identify stakeholder requirements early on and to break them down to system and process requirements – right down to the requirements at the planned manufacturing  location, including risk analysis and FMEAs“, says Reissig. This central tool keeps record of requirements, risks and changes throughout all five phases. It guarantees traceability and, in the case of adjustments, renders the technical impact visible to everyone.“

PHASE 2: DESIGN
SIMULTANEOUS ENGINEERING
STEPS UP THE PACE
WILD applies simultaneous engineering at the very beginning of a project: Development, production and test processes run in parallel – not in sequence. Whilst creating the initial CAD data, WILD also develops assembly concepts, risk assessments, logistics operations and test  strategies.

PHASE 3: REALISATION
VERIFICATION OVER IMPROVISATION
As soon as the design phase is completed, it is followed by realisation – including prototyping, verification, test system analysis, product verification and process validation. This is where systematic documentation plays out its strengths: Changes are completely traceable and the impact on other areas is transparent at all times.

PHASE 4: TRANSFER TO SERIES
WHEN EVERYTHING ADDS UP
The final phase involves the transition to production. Validation data, process capabilities, packaging concepts and customer feedback flow into series production release. The objective is a stable, cost-optimised serial product – with reliable planning for volumes, ramp-ups and life cycle management.

STAYING AGILE
It is essential for the WILD Group to have a seamless, audited process that helps its customers navigate safely and quickly through all phases of product creation. Aided by clear checkpoints, an intelligent tool and IT landscape, as well as strong partners. ”Our engineering is not a rigid construct but an agile framework. It helps us introduce agility into our projects, making the high complexity often encountered more manageable. We can thus give our customers the certainty that they will remain within the predefined deadlines, costs and quality  requirements“, emphasises WILD Group CTO Wolfgang Warum.