7/4/2014 How To Manage Your Contract Manufacturer Part 2

How To Manage Your Contract Manufacturer

Part 2: Schedule
J UNE 2 7 T H, 2 0 1 4 | B Y S CO T T N. M I L L E R

Once the MSA is signed by both you and the contract

manufacturer, it’s time to start the steps leading up to
production. A good place to start is the schedule.

When creating a production schedule, consider the following:

Many consumer schedules are driven by Christmas (which has a fixed date). You will
most likely be able to sell many more units leading up to the holiday, but also it’s
important to be realistic with your schedule and not ship a product of low quality.
Often, if you miss Christmas, you can use CES.
Plan contingency in your schedule. Things never go according to plan.
Allow several prototype cycles and enough time between cycles so you can fix issues
that are found during testing.
Your manufacturing partner is unlikely to be as optimistic or aggressive as you (and
this is good).
Have an onsite presence in the factory. This is especially critical for complex or time
critical products.
Track the schedule closely and take corrective actions early. Don’t expect to make up
the time in the end.
In almost all cases, shipping known bad product is worse than shipping late product.
Large numbers of returns can kill your business and reputation.
Avoid: “There’s never enough time to do it right the first time, but always enough time
to do it again.”

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7/4/2014 How To Manage Your Contract Manufacturer Part 2

The major milestones for production that will determine your schedule
include:
Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DFM)
Project Kick-Off / Knowledge Transfer
Preproduction Engineering
Tool Release

Pre-Production
Tool Start (TS)
First Shots (FS)
Tool Mods
Engineering Pilot 1 (EP1)
Regulatory Testing
Engineering Pilot 2 (EP2) / Customer Use Test (CUT)
Final Engineering Pilot (FEP)
Production Pilot (PP)

Production
Production Start (PS)
First Inspection
First Batch Ex-Factory

While every run is different, on average the above steps usually require 6 months. Prior to
getting excited about making Christmas, don’t forget that the lead-in time for selecting the
factory (RFQ), negotiating the MSA, and shipping your product would add up to two
additional months to the schedule (i.e. for planning purposes, assume eight months from
the post-crowdfunding to production start). Shipping can add another few weeks to a
month depending on whether you go via air or water.

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