Prototyping is becoming an instrumental part of the modern market. As industries grow and evolve, they need fast implementation of new ideas. Designers must quickly get realistic prototypes in the hands of potential customers. Digital models are far less understandable than something they can see and feel. Traditional product development, including prototyping, can delay products in reaching customers. They can also create room for design errors. Quick product prototyping is one of the most beneficial services for product developers since every manufacturing organization is concerned about improving the design, development, and sales.

Quick product prototyping refers to a collection of manufacturing techniques, which allow digital models to be created as physical parts. There are many types of technologies that come together to make prototyping possible. The goal is to produce an accurate prototype to send to testing, which should be done as fast as possible. Quick prototyping makes this process much easier than traditional methods. Many different products can be produced through quick prototyping, such as concept models and functional prototypes. They may include showing how companies can produce working prototypes for reasonable costs.

Why Use a Prototyping Service?

Most OEM manufacturers typically shy away from supporting startups due to their financial limitations and product development experience. As a result, startups often depend on foreign EMS partners to create prototypes for them. However, converting a prototype into a commercial model is often difficult for startups due to their limited expertise in product ruggedizing and realization as per global standards. They also face component procurement challenges resulting from limited procuring and importing experience. As a result, they have a longer lead-time, often up to 10 weeks, for developing a new prototype. With this service, clients can effectively move far beyond the visualization of an idea, making it easier for them to grasp the properties and design of a product and quickly reiterate designs and incorporate changes.

This iterative process provides a roadmap to developing and refining the final product before taking it to the market, ensuring that each design is optimized and foolproof. Minimizing design flaws with a small-volume quick prototype run also helps eliminate costly design flaws that might not be evident during an early assessment. They can save time and money by eliminating the need for setup and tooling as well. Since many vendors use the same equipment to produce various prototypes with different properties and materials, minimizing the overall costs and turnaround time. During design iteration, quick prototyping companies provide fast turnaround and effectively manage to prototype through mass production.

Their designers will often collaborate with a client’s in-house team to create products based on their criteria, using an objective framework. Some companies conduct a design feasibility study and provide a cross-functional team review and comprehensive supplier qualification. Each project usually has a dedicated point-of-contact and a client advocate on the factory floor. Experienced vendors use proven methodologies to reduce costs, ensure all objectives are met, and establish the highest possible product functionality and overall quality. This approach reduces risk and enables predictable and successful launches that are fast to market.

Syrma’s New Quick Prototyping Service

We recently developed our Zone of Autonomous Creation (ZAC) division, located in our main Chennai manufacturing facility. This new division supports our clients with creating small volume prototypes quickly and efficiently. It enables our clients to effectively take concepts from an idea into hands-on products that can be held and seen in action. This service also provides parallel processes to satisfy our clients with shorter lead-time requirements and must test multiple designed components before mass-producing a product. Each prototype’s current delivery time target is 4-5 weeks from its order date, which is up to half the amount of time it typically takes to produce a new prototype.

By using our new division, all companies receive shorter prototype lead times, up to 5 weeks vs. months in advance, and support for very low volume orders with flexibility in design revisions and upgrades. We have a dedicated SMT and back-end line that quickly conducts the prototype manufacturing process without intervention from other divisions. They have strong manufacturing experience and can provide support with developing product ruggedizing or commercial models. For each prototype, they test for manufacturability and mass production via custom-developed functional and system-level testing. They also have access to India’s supply chain network to source components at competitive pricing and with quick customs clearance formalities for raw materials.

Backed by 40 Years of Expertise

We contribute our 40 years of design and manufacturing expertise spanning multiple diverse markets. We look forward to discussing how we can deliver world-class products for OEMs across the globe. We understand our home Indian market, familiar with its vast regulatory and selling environments. We foster growth opportunities within India through our strong technology incubation ecosystem. We also assist global OEMs in entering the Indian market by leveraging the local supply chain and favorable operating environments for cost reductions.

Our flagship Chennai location opened in 2006 and lies within a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) for electronics manufacturing, offering economic incentives for imports and exports. This primary facility is within 90 minutes of the Chennai seaport and 20 minutes to the international airport. Additional road and rail connectivity links to the rest of India and beyond and infrastructure advantages with faster import and export clearances. We also have labor force flexibility, both technical and manual, to scale to demand rapidly.

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