From R&D to Mass

Production
- The winding road to series production –

Dr. W. Stein, Founder Institute March 2020

Dr. W. Stein, Short intro

Major ventures:

▪ From Prototype to Mass Production: GaN blue LED at Osram OS

▪ From R&D to Pilot Line to Mass Production: Thinfilm Si Photovoltaics at Oerlikon AG
▪ Directly to Factory Building and Mass Production Ramp: Thinfilm PV at Sunfilm AG
▪ From Lab to Pilot Line to mass production: High-eff. crystalline photovoltaics at Meyer
Burger AG
▪ …

→ It‘s all about HARDWARE!

Intro

Innovation/ Product Development

Dominating Financing
Risk Stage of Development Tool
R&D Govt.
Technology Seed
FFF,
Prototype Grants,

„Manu“-facture Sector VC
Market
Production
Generalist VC /
Growth Mezzanine
Management
Industrial Public

Venture Capital Zone

Source: Operto AG
Winding road to mass
production
The start: Idea/ IP/ Patent
Should I file IP or not?
Answer: It depends
+ Protection of your idea, might help to keep a headstart before competition
+ Might be a bonus for getting VC financing
+ Might Raise your company valuation as an intangible asset
+ Makes certain technical and business collaborations easier, You can talk openly.
+ In certain high-tech fields a patent portfolio is almost mandatory. Also as a defensive portfolio.

- It costs a lot of money

- You migh make your competitor smart. Sometimes secrecy is the better strategy
- Rarely, patents are so strong, that they inhibit competition. Do not rely to much on it. Better: keep
innovating and listen to your customer
- Time Consuming and extensive effort
- And remeber might take > 10 years to get worldwide patents granted.
Important Milestone, but not more: Prototyping
Issue issue, issue,..
• Lack of Financing, lack of personnel, lack of equipment/ lab space, ..
• Time is of the essence!! Time-to-market is key.

What is the right strategy to make a prototype? Some tipps

• Look for collaboration partners (universities, institutes, private companies)
• Look for finance, but remember: typically things take longer than expected, so need more money
• You will be finally paid by your customer. So start discussion with him already in this stage
• The typical mistake in Germany is an overengineered product with no customer market
• Look beyond: Already in the design/protoype phase, you should look into mass production
worthiness of your processes and equipments. Think already here about future machine
suppliers and material suppliers, but do not tarry to long. Cross that bridge once you are there.
• Get an idea about the future cost under series production conditions. But do not get too worried
about it. Material prices can plummet tremendously, when purchased in high numbers compared to
lab quantities
Getting ready for industry: Pilot line and small
series manufacturing
MAKE or BUY Prominent examples:

Make:
• TESLA
• Automotive factory in Freemont, Silicon Valley. Former Japanese car maker plant then sold to Tesla.
• All cars done in-house and shipped to Europe and China currently (Model S, Model 3, Model X)
• Small workshops in Europe (Amsterdam), China currently new fab under constrution

Buy:
• APPLE
• All iphones manufactured in Asia, mainly by corporate giant Foxconn (Taiwan)
• Major production facilities: Mainland China
• Often Apple is criticised for missing social and environmental standards in this regards
The 3 Myths of product
development
3 Myths about Product Development
1. „When you have the prototype, you are virtually done. The rest is
just engineering.“

True only for the scientist, for all others wrong, because:

With the first prototype the problems really start,

most product developments fail between
prototype and mass production.
3 Myths about Product Development
2. „Once the product is qualified and in mass production, the job is done.“

True only for the development engineer, for all others wrong, because:

The product is successful, once you have it in

production with high yield, high product quality
and low manufacturing cost. On top of that: a
constant customer demand and the product
makes profit. Manufacturing cost and market
pricing are decisive.
3 Myths about Product Development
3. „Once the product is profitable, you succeded finally.“

True only for today, but wrong for whom wants to stay in business tomorrow,
because:

The competition never sleeps, if you stop

innovating and improving your productivity every
day, you might be busted next year.
Many thanks for your kind
attention!