Ken Rother is an entrepreneur who has built and exited two successful tech/media startups. His experience is centered in operations, sales, product management, and technology. Mr. Rother is director of Rev: Ithaca Startup Works, which runs several hardware accelerator programs. He also is the managing director of eLab, an accelerator program for Cornell student startups, as well as a visiting lecturer of management at Cornell’s Johnson Graduate School of Management.
Course Overview
Once you have worked out small-scale manufacturing for your physical product, you will explore a framework called Design for X. Design for X encompasses all aspects of planning for high-volume production, where "X" can be Manufacturing, Assembly, Testing, Upgrade, Repair, Sustainability, End-of-Life, Installation, and Start.
Design for X incorporates best practices from the experiences of physical product developers in making a reproducible product. You will apply these ideas to design a large-scale manufacturing process that is efficient and cost effective. This will enable you to reduce the number of steps in the process, build quality into manufacturing, and design for customer ease in the upgrade, repair, and end-of-life of the product, among other considerations. In sum, Design for X will enable you to please your customers with an excellent product that functions as promised.
This course includes a video tour of a contract manufacturing firm near Cornell University. In this video, you will observe the process of plastic injection molding, a common and inexpensive process that many physical product entrepreneurs use to manufacture their products.
You are required to have completed the following courses or have equivalent experience before taking this course:
- Building and Validating Prototypes
- Developing Product Specifications
- Launching Small-Scale Production
- Managing High-Volume Production
Key Course Takeaways
- Select a contract manufacturer
- Develop a production ramp-up strategy
- Determine quality assurance roles and schedule testing
- Identify supply chain partners
Download a Brochure
Not ready to enroll but want to learn more? Download the course brochure to review program details.How It Works
Course Author
Who Should Enroll
- Entrepreneurs
- Product managers
- Designers
- Usability experts
- Software engineers
- Consultants
- Manufacturers
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