Gary Franklin
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I have been “trying” to piece together my prototype for little while now and i just am not getting it right. I am looking for an industrial design team to nurture my baby along. I do realize the cost are extreme. I am curious about freelance workers on say guru.com for example to handle some of the design aspects to lessen the cost but i would tend to think one firm all in-house engineers, designers ,developers everyone involved is used to working together there for resulting in a more fluid process….. anyone care to share there experiences with a complete industrial team vs doing everything separate or them selfs and cost vs time spent. i know this varies depending on the complexity of the project. thanks in advance for you help.
G
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Jonathan smith
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Gary,
I am an ID Guy, and I suggest you check out www.coroflot.com to look for a designer near you so that you can impart all aspects of the design intent to the designer/engineer. This should help eliminate some of the hurdles commonly found with long distance relationships. I would also suggest that you search for a design firm in your area so you can get a proposal for the job.
As for you question:
I would say to do it all with one firm, but I am biased. Translation can be an issue when teams are not aligned/working together. The price may be cheaper if you use multiple providers, but the cost may be far more.
Best,
Jonathan C. Smith
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Scott Thieman
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Gary,
You got yourself into a pickle huh… the problem with hiring anyone to come up with a solution is that there is more than one way to skin a cat. I do all my own designing and engineering but I do listen to suggestions (I don’t always act on them but there might be a tidbit that I can pull from the suggestion).
I had a need for a “part counter” for example, pro’s in the field wanted $30K to design and build a prototype. ya right. It would take two centuries to justify that expense. In my spare time, a shop full of wood working equipment, misc parts from whatever I cold find and dozens of scrapped ideas, I finally have a working “counter”. I probably have about $100 bucks in it now, and am reverse engineering now. The production model that I will probably make 10 of, will cost about $300 each, but these will be very well made. This “counter” mechanically counts and dispenses exactly 10 pcs into a bag in about 1/2 a second. A huge difference between the 15 seconds it was taking and $30K to build one for me.
Remember that an engineer does not have a vested interest in the success of what you are hiring them to do, I guess the only thing I can suggest is to design it yourself if you have the talent to do that, if not, I would suggest finding a single engineer that is looking for work (with the experience you need) and figure out a way to compensate him if he can find a solution that meets your needs.
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