Outsourcing product development can provide a competitive edge in terms of expanding engineering resources, accessing specialized expertise or reducing time and/or overall cost. However, product development partners can vary widely in terms of the value provided. Additionally, while offshore product development firms can provide a cost advantage; careful consideration should be given to the quality of their processes and ability to work well multi-nationally.
Forefront Medical Technology has found that the best partnerships evolve when companies analyze potential working relationships and competencies in addition to price, when selecting a product development partner and written a white paper that looks at eight areas to evaluate in that selection process:
- Ability to work well with your team
- Engineering expertise
- Materials expertise
- Defined product development process
- Intellectual property protection
- Manufacturability expertise
- Ability to align with cost goals
- Ability to meet quality assurance standards.
Access the complete white paper here.
