Every project is different. Our process molds itself to your needs.

A unique process for unique projects.

Our approach

Creative Engineering takes a proactive, first principles approach to solving design problems. We question assumptions to drive innovation. We often provide answers to “impossible” design problems by changing the question, or by way of other “out of the box” creative approaches.

Cost, function, aesthetics, manufacturability and marketing all contribute requirements to a product. Our role is to generate a design that meets these sometimes conflicting goals while carefully balancing the resulting compromises in order to deliver the best possible product.

Design Exploration

The starting point for projects that we work on can vary. The design exploration phase is commonly used to by our team to understand the problem on a deeper level and begin to test conceptual solutions.

Our main approach during this phase is to understand and then tackle the problems we identify as posing the greatest risk. During this phase we may produce rough prototypes to test certain characteristics of your product or do research into existing products and patents.

Typically this phase concludes with a written Product Requirements Document (PRD) where agree on the core functionalities and parameters of your product and identify preliminary solutions to identified risks.

Industrial Design

Industrial engineering serves to create an aesthetic model to influence the design of the final product. This phase is often done towards the beginning of the project because it serves engineering to understand the size and space constraints of the product.

Industrial engineering also serves to impact the final product ergonomics and user experience.

Preliminary Engineering

Once a brainstormed solution has been selected, we will embody it in a preliminary design. We will focus on keeping the design as simple as possible while ensuring that it fits within the required physical envelope and meets the design requirements. 

Depending on the complexity of your project, we may engage with other engineering disciplines at this stage to ensure the mechanical design complements the supporting functions. Ex. Electrical and Software Engineering

Prototyping

Since the development process is rarely linear, prototypes may be needed during multiple phases to test functionality and garner feedback.

Prototypes are a physical representation of the design process at any stage. They serve to test aspects of the design that are hard to quantify with the CAD modeling alone. Often prototypes reveal issue related to ergonomics, assembly process and general use that would go otherwise unnoticed.

Prototypes are also often used by our clients to market test their product idea, garner investment funding and receive general feedback from their customer base. We have the ability to create prototypes of varying complexity and external quality to meet your specific needs.

Detail Engineering

Once the initial design and prototype(s) have been approved, detailed engineering serves to combine the feedback from the previous phases to form a model of the product that closely resembles the final model. The industrial design will be incorporated into the design and made mechanically viable and focus will be paid to fine details.

Design for Manufacturing

While we are constantly thinking about the manufacturing process design the initial design phases, it is common to make minor changes to part design and assembly characteristics before entering manufacturing.

During this phase, it is required to make a final high quality prototype that will test the final detailed design so that informed changes can be made. It is common to find manufacturing savings during this phase by improving the design for simpler assembly and reduced manufacturing cost.

An addition during this phase is the creation of the final CAD package and 2D drawings if needed. Often times different parts in the final product will require different materials and processes. These details will be specified here.

Manufacturing

Manufacturing is the final stage of new product development. The design is essentially “frozen” and sent to suppliers for part creation and assembly.

With new products it is common to perform small design tweaks during this phase based upon manufacturer feedback to ensure quality and reduce costs.