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In May last year, one of just 200 Apple
I computers ever made sold at auction
in Germany for more than £400,000.
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak
designed and hand-built the first
machine immediately after going to a
meeting of the Homebrew Computer
Club in a Menlo Park, California garage.
Two years later, Apple launched its
first volume-sales machine, the Apple
II, which was a more advanced and
carefully cost-optimised design. To help
with customer support, as Wozniak
was the only person with first-hand
knowledge of the inner workings of the
original, the company offered trade-in
deals to encourage customers to move
to the more advanced machine. It was
a recognition of the many factors at
play in the construction of an electronic
system – the importance of ongoing
support in a product’s lifecycle.
To ensure that the launch and ongoing
support of a product is as smooth and
successful as possible, many functions
– and often a variety of people – will
be involved throughout the lifecycle.
As well as design engineering,
marketing,
product
planning,
purchasing and supply management,
field support, reliability engineering,
production engineering, quality and
even key customers will play roles in
the development lifecycle. Historically,
many of these functions would have
been performed serially.
The lifecycle might start with the
familiar “back of an envelope” sketch,
quickly moving on to a proof-of-
concept design. This version would
not be expected to go into production.
Instead, it would go through a series
of revisions that focus on improving
production cost, reliability and
usability. Purchasing and supply-
chain management plays a key role
in this process by focusing not just on
component pricing but continuity of
supply.
In recent years, many electronics
OEMs have embarked on a
programme of supplier consolidation,
in which they favour a small number
of larger suppliers with which they
can negotiate better pricing and
ensure that all the components they
require are available even in times of
shortage. This can involve significant
redesign to a proof-of-concept version
to ensure that components selected
by the engineering team fit the
purchasing policy or that a waiver has
been organised for key parts.
Similarly, marketing and sales play
key roles in product planning as they
have the information available to
them on how much they can charge
and make reasonable predictions
on sales levels assuming the system
meets its objectives. If a product
is too expensive, it will need to be
redesigned to reduce its cost or have
The lifecycle of an idea
Steve Vecchialrelli, Vice President Supply Chain Solutions at Digi-Key Electronics
32 l New-Tech Magazine Europe