Downturns and the Design Engineer

Where I've worked the design cycles were approximately 18 months.  This means development intent did not change that rapidly.  We focused on the major trends such as cost of ownership and what our customers wanted.  Regardless, we always tried to use as much of what worked from past designs.  Revamping an old piece that works is fraught with issues.  Testing and verification makes redesign very expensive.

Last prediction I read was guessing that R and D spend would remain level. If so, I would assume that most designers would be working on new designs that would "catapult" their company into good sales when things pick up again.

I also think it would depend on the success of their current project, if you look at Apple they are on, I think, the 7th redesign of the ipod.

Leading companies maintain a portfolio of R&D projects that range from high risk high reward technology development efforts to minor product modifications and bug fixes.  In addition to the wide range of design objectives, a typical R& D development portfolio will consist of significant variances in time to market (and revenue).  The tough job for management is to manage the R&D development portfolio given the internal uncertainties of project execution, and the market risk associated with the business case governing the expected return of the portfolio of projects.  In economic downturns the business case success metrics will undoubtedly vary and in most cases, when the markets served experience a decline in spend, the projected NPV for programs will diminish and programs will fall short of IRR hurdle rates.  The resulting shift in the R&D portfolio will gravitate towards lower uncertainty which could be the result of redesigns or new projects with quick time to revenue.

Downturn of industry  means challenge for the boss and design engineer, boss will consider the company's future and how to maintain the company running well.Design engineer will worry about laying off , worry about wheter there exsiting design prouducts  will continue  or  die. these are very real problem they should confront.

But downturn of industry also means chance for everyone.A forward-looking  boss will use this time to improve his inside achievement，to reconfigure the company advantage，to do a long term and wide scope plan，to correct the existing problem and flaw of company。a design engineer do the same way，even he encounter laying off，hope and confidence can not be lost.
back to your questions, redesigning existing product(s) and designing  a new product are all Ok, the most important thing are wheter your  boss and you have the open minds and confidaence to confront the difficulty ,to grasp these chance which seems a disaster for others.

I am responding from my customers points of view. They are staying on their course right now and do not intend to make big changes, but

proceed with little changes and/or modifications.

Tony,

What i have observed over the last 8 months is that design starts are as high as ever, but they do not go past proto stage into production.

So, another question is what tactics DE's take to get their desgins noticed and eventually marketed and sold?

Thanks for the thought provoking question

We have a typical design to manufacture cycle of 6 months to 12 months depending on the complexity product and the amount of custom mechnical tooling required.  So there is a lot of strategic rethinking during downtimes as this is generally a similar window to the actual economic dip.

As a design consultancy, we also see changes in our clients' response.  About 20% of our clients are either advancing development schedules or adding new products to their development list in anticipation of being able to take advantage of the upturn.  Some are also taking advantage of a slight slowing to get to things they couldn't when they were flat out.  MOst businesses these days don't have a lot of spare capcity just sitting around so a short term slowing is actually an opportunity.

Most of the rest of the 80% are either cutting development completely or scaling back significantly.

I'm fairly sure about who will do better come the revcovery.

Internally, we are expanding and have just moved to larger offices.  We see this as a chance to bring new products and services forward and are acting according to that belief.

Ray Keefe

Managing Director

Successful Endeavours Pty Ltd

http://www.successful.com.au

its very much a double edged sword at the moment. i work in the machine tool industry(well at least whats left of it in the uk) and for us its a case of nothing more at the moment than survival.

we feel that if we could make the new year then we will be in a fantastic position to capitalise on others demise....however.....we'd really like to develop new products. now that would fine if we didnt now have 33% of the engineers due to redundancies. All our time and energy seems to be swallowed up in plugging other skills gaps throughout the business, again due to cut backs, rather than doing what we are good at.

we've no shortage of ideas either, just no money to develop them.

as to what the future holds well, who knows.

it was interesting to read that consultants are doing well, i wonder if thats only as a result of companies shedding engineers then finding that they really needed them? but maybe thats a question for another post.