At Innovation Lab, we offer hardware/product development services that cover the full product development life cycle from idea to a working prototype, testing and mass production with long term maintenance and product upgrade services. Our methodology is based on an agile model where the product development is broken into several phases. This process involves constant collaboration with stakeholders and continuous improvement at every stage. The main phases of the process are described below.
Product Development Life Cycle
Ideation
This is the first stage where the client presents their idea or they ask for a specific hardware device development.
Pre-Study
To take the idea to the next stage, a conceptual model or a prototype is considered and presented to the client to prove the feasibility of their idea.
Architecture Design
This stage defines the derailed requirements of the desired product. Also called idea realization, a prototype or the conceptual model is necessary to provide the feasibility of the idea. This stage also gives the costing estimate that will help the client or the business to make a decision to move forward with the product.
Electronics Design
In this stage, the hardware is designed and consists of the following steps.
| Parts selection | Electronic parts and modules are selected according to product architecture and requirements. |
| Schematic design | During this stage a schematic diagram of the electrical circuit is made. This diagram consists of discrete electronic components symbols connected with each other to form an electrical circuit that works the way it needs to work according to product idea and requirements. |
| Printed circuit board design | Printed circuit board holds all physical electronic components in place and provides necessary electrical connections and mounting points. |
| Manufacturing and assembly | Printed circuit boards are manufactured and all electronic parts are assembled according to schematic and circuit board designs. |
| Software design | After the electronics part is done, most of the time the product does not function, because of blank microcontrollers. Microcontrollers are small devices, which processes commands according to a written program. For a product to work it is necessary to write a software (program) for microcontrollers (depending on the product there can be several microcontrollers). Other parts that need to be programmed are programmable logic devices (if such devices are necessary in a product). Nowadays software design processes take more time than electronics design because most of tasks are handled by microcontrollers or programmable logic devices. |
| Mechanical design | In most cases, the electronic part is not the only part needed in a product. Usually electronics only control some kind of mechanical processes. Even if a product is not controlling any mechanical processes, electronics need to be mounted in a case, which protects the product and gives an aesthetic view. |
| Testing of a product | During many development stages some errors might occur, therefore the product needs to be tested if it meets initial requirements and if it meets client’s needs. According to the complexity of the product, different testing procedures need to be created. This might even involve design of testing equipment. After testing is done, iIf any imperfections or inefficiencies are found, either electronics or software are tweaked to improve the product. After all problems are solved, the development process goes to the next step. |
|
Design for manufacture |
At this part electronics design are revised to meet manufacturing and planned costs requirements. Production files are prepared and sent to the manufacturing company to get the required quantity of products built. |
| Maintenance | There might be problems in the assembly process or negative factors during use of the product which would lead to malfunctioning. Those problems are intently investigated to find solutions. |
Technologies we use
