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Plan of Manafacture
plan of manufacture
As this is a fairly niche product, a method of manufacture and distrobution needs to be used that is appropriate for this scale of expected sales. In this case, crowd-funding could be an achievable solution. This involves the ‘funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people who each contribute a relatively small amount’ [dictionary.com]. Platforms such as kickstarter or indigogo allow quick and easy ways of crowdfunding small product design ventures. By going with crowdfunding, the product gets guaranteed sales from the start, as well as an investment of liquid cash to be able to pay suppliers and manafacturers. By looking at advice for kickstarter projects, (entrepreneur.com/article/229782, blog.producthype. co/kickstarter-tips-2019/), it seems that my project is comparable with most of the advice given by successful campaign managers. Although, adaptation of hero images and video prototype would be needed. Looking at previously funded campaigns for mood lamps (http://kck.st/1jYjhhY), there are many interested project backers, however only 12 launched projects. This seems to be a gap in the market. These range from between 100-10,000 backers. All in all, this means that I will need to plan to manufacture in medium sized batches of 500-5000. Unfortunately this rules out manufacturing techniques with a very high tooling cost such as injection moulding, as well as rules out techniques with a long, expensive production time such as CNC milling, as the price per part should be kept to a minimum. In order to keep communication as easy as possible, final assembly in a local manufacturer would be the best option, as it allows quick QA feedback and changes and revisions to be made. Sourcing as many pre-made components from cheaper overseas suppliers will reduce per-unit costs, freeing up some money for the added cost of local labour. This also means that the lead time will be shorter, which is a concern when manufacturing for a crowdfunding campaign.
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zencube, a similar mental health based lamp, fully funded with products starting at £220. This is far above the expected end retail cost of my product.
