Collaborating with Customers on Design

CUSTOMER STORY

Own the Part

Many Aerospace and Military manufacturers have long taken for granted that they have to be in a sense held hostage by established suppliers when it comes to the intellectual property (IP) rights of major sub-system products, such as motors, because historically that’s the way it’s always been.

Each customer is now allowed to do what is best for the security of its value stream.

The designs for these products are typically held by the suppliers and not accessible to the using customers under contract. Given the highly technical nature of these products – customers forced into this kind of situation can quickly find themselves with uncomfortable levels of risk added to their value stream as many circumstances can change. From consolidation in the product industry, to shifts in the ownership of individual suppliers, to unexpected financial difficulties, any combination of these factors can cause huge variations in cost, quality and delivery.

It’s a legacy way of doing business that no longer fits with the critical needs for agility of today’s manufacturers.

Aerospace & Military Manufacturers Gain Control with An Updated Playbook

Capsonic has long believed that delivering value to its customers doesn’t simply begin or end with just the production of parts. In today’s uncertain world, Capsonic delivers on risk reduction strategies for all of its customers especially when it comes to helping them reacquire control of their supply chain risk by changing the rules around who actually owns their critical IP designs.

By using Capsonic’s expertise in Design for Manufacturability (DFM) to rewrite their stories in this important regard, Capsonic helps Aerospace and Military manufacturers improve their operational consistency.

Collaboration is the name of this new game where Capsonic facilitates value-added activities on products that customers must maintain design ownership of (for FAA/UESA certifications, for instance) as well as ones where the design control is discretionary. In both scenarios, Capsonic does not parochially hold the designs as its property. Instead each customer is now allowed to do what is best for the security of its value stream. This includes competitive benchmarking of the end production pricing for the supply of the product beyond just Capsonic. And, even with that objective allowance, Capsonic is most often selected as the end manufacturer of these collaborative designs.

Similarly, Capsonic is often asked to consult on the DFM nature of designs that customers are doing internally themselves, or with other captive outside firms. Expertise in what is successfully manufacturable for products like motors, actuators, generators and more assures that these Capsonic customers will also avoid costly timing and redesign delays after initial release and trials.

Engineering the Win

Leveraging Capsonic’s engineering capability to collaboratively establish replacement designs gives customers the power they need to own the newly-formed IP designs of their products. They additionally benefit from not having to expend excessive resources or cost to obtain them. And, they also receive a design package that has the benefit of Design for Manufacturability (DFM) integrally included. At the end of the game, this is another key to victory, as there are many sources for theoretical designs of rotational products, but few that can combine good functional design with the inherent characteristics that make the product(s) cost effective and consistent to actually manufacture.