BUSINESS SUPPORT
I often get asked, "what brought about the formation of BreitLabs?" It was simple - there are many experts in the Audio Engineering consulting field but they tend to be all specialized and walled off from the business world taking a narrow focus on the product designs.

Many development and manufacturing Engineers become enamored with their designs and want to develop and develop without releasing it. From the manufacturing side, they do not want to release a design for mass production until it is perfect. These Engineers are often blinded by the real needs of the customer building in features, specifications, or perfect quality standards that 99% of end users will never use or value.

On the business side, there is often a push for new products based upon needs without a clear understanding what is technically possible. The Marketing people often push the Engineers for unobtainable performance or damage the performance of a product to add features. Meanwhile the Sales group is constantly pushing to get products out and make sales.

These mind-sets have been in constant conflict for the last 100 years but with the more modern involvement of a titled Product Manager. Unfortunately, the Product Manager is constantly squeezed and must often play referee and chief compromiser to balance good products with reasonable timing.


PRODUCT MANAGEMENT "TRIAD"
There are many concepts to a good Product Management Systems available. Always trying to keep things simple is one of the best approaches when initiating a program such as the the "Product Management Triad".

The Triad is simply a graphic of the three key people or groups that must birth a product or program. If you look carefully at it, it is just the good old Engineer and Sales/Marketing guy squeezing the Product Manager.

What is nice about this graphic is the clear visual timing cues needed for all parties, their sequence, and their overlap.




TECH IDEAS CONVERSION (Turn tech modules/ideas into products)
Often in the Engineering realm truly great audio products come to market yet fail due to overly complex setup and usage, poor user interface, poor industrial designs, or simply over-selling the performance capabilities of the product.

It is very common for ODM (Original Design manufacturing) companies in Asia to take some very good technology they have developed yet misapply it badly. They are attempting to develop a product without a needs analysis and often miss badly with strange functions or operations that simply do not make sense from a user or cosmetic standpoint in another culture. We make sure the right size "shoe" fits the right sized "foot". We are able to modify that product design helping ensure a successful product launch and repeat sales. We will start out by making a full review of the ODM/OEM product technologies and features then develop a product or product family taking advantage of these strengths.

Often lost in the best product designs is simply the ability to explain the features translating them into real benefits for the brand or the end user. Our 30 years in consumer electronics with direct interfacing with the consumer has taught us how to appreciate and think from the consumer's perspective much like Apple Computer has done.



MARKET NEEDS CONVERSION (Turn market needs into products)
Many brands simply do not know what product design they want but they know they need something.

Although a good Marketing major or Salesman many have many anecdotal comments regarding design or needs you must be able to distill them into a well thought out product definition which can then be translated into a solid manufacturing specification. This can then be handed off to an OEM manufacturing firm to source the product or sent out by a purchasing manager for quotations.

Having over 30 years of direct consumer interface, we have developed a well tuned filter for what people ask for but being able to translate it into what they really want. For example, someone may want a loudspeaker to be "smaller" but after I interface with them, they may really be asking for a loudspeaker that is simply thinner or narrower. More importantly is our ability to define "benefits" which are very different from "features". Does this product really make the end user's life better? Why people choose a product over another they are usually looking for benefits, not a huge list of features. There is elegance in simplicity. Once a clear list of needs is developed, we can then move on to build a consumer level spec sheet, then an engineering level spec sheet, then finally address manufacturing specs. If is critical these all balance with pricing and the key components are given priorities.



PROJECT PLANNING
BreitLabs is not just an Engineering firm but also a Project Management resource. Planning is the key to all of our projects and we strongly encourage our customers to focus on Strategic, Tactical, and Operations based systems.

STRATEGIC PLANNING: We try to set clear, simple product or business goals.

TACTICAL PLANNING: The Sales and Service departments must are key not just at the end of the process but also at the beginning setting the sales and distribution targets.

OPERATIONS PLANNING: Market analysis, Engineering, Product/Project Management must balance the needs and costs with timing, resources, and supplier base.



PROJECT MANAGEMENT
We are strong believers in the APQP system, "Advanced Product Quality Planning". Although the name implies a focus on quality and reliability it is really focused on the product planning process. Many companies have their own project management systems in place but most still come back to the core components in the planning process.

PLANNING: It is critical to have a well defined product and system in place. Many products are developed "on the fly" which is a recipe for disaster.

APPROVALS: Everyone must get on board and the prototypes must show promise. Why move ahead if there is no confidence in the product or business?

PROTOTYPES: Once we have nailed down the the products we can segue to the the manufacturing process to make sure we are testing, measuring, and reviewing using all the right methods.

PILOT: The first production parts must be good. Many people think production will clean up the parts but this is not acceptable - you MUST get the pilot production and parts right or the production will just be a larger scale disaster of the small one you have now.

LAUNCH: Launch is often considered the most "exciting" time with numerous problems but for a well managed product and program this is actually fairly routine and boring.