‘There is a paucity of manufacturing companies left in the UK, but among those that do remain, it’s rare to come across someone who doesn’t understand the importance of design,’ says Dick Powell, co-founder of design consultancy Seymour Powell.
‘However, some manufacturers still view design as a service – like buying photocopying paper – and don’t give it the importance in the decision making process that they could.’
So what is the rightful place for design in manufacturing? How do you choose the right design partner and what benefits should you expect?
In recent years, the role of design in manufacturing has certainly evolved. Powell views this change as a graph mapping effort against project timescale: ‘The creative team’s effort is naturally quite front ended, and diminishes as a product comes to market. The internal technical and development team tends to be less involved early on and their effort scales up as the product nears production. At some stage, you reach a cross-over point, which you might loosely (and not very accurately) call the handover point. This point has been inexorably moving downstream, with deeper involvement from the design team further into the project.’
The deepening influence of design into the product development process can largely be attributed to the introduction and rapid rise of computer aided design. Increasingly sophisticated technologies enable manufacturers to go back to the drawing board, as it were, later and later in the product development cycle.
But it isn’t just the involvement of CAD that is enabling design to adopt a more influential position. For design practitioners like Powell, the increasing need for more in-depth design is an inevitable result of growing competitive pressures from abroad.
‘Design on its own is not an adequate defence against Chinese imports,’ he says. ‘The whole idea that China would never be as good as us at a thousand different technical and cultural things was completely wrong and always was. So manufacturers have to be thinking about more than just skin-deep design.’
As a result, manufacturers are embracing design-led innovation to help shape the future of their businesses, to identify the opportunities that exist within their core markets for long-term growth, and to develop the product ranges and families that will secure profits for years to come.
‘Growing numbers of manufacturers have compelling stories to tell about successful innovation projects reaching the market,’ agrees Powell. ‘And when they can demonstrate how a creative project has fundamentally improved the performance of the business, it’s hard for other manufacturers to ignore.’
But embarking on such a project, which in some cases involves a complete shift in company culture and attitude, can be a daunting experience, and choosing the right design partner is crucial, since manufacturers may be working with their chosen agency for many years.
‘Partnerships with manufacturers tend to be longstanding, because of how involved you get with their business,’ explains Powell. ‘To really understand a business, its products, processes and markets takes a long time. It’s not like commissioning packaging or graphics, which you get done and then let it go for a few years, this is an ongoing process.’
And manufacturers certainly shouldn’t be looking for a quick fix: ‘We’re not marching in and pulling a rabbit out of a hat, it’s much more discursive and involves working together, generating ideas and possibilities and driving them forward to completion.’
When choosing an innovations partner, Powell’s advice is clear: ‘Look for output. The core thing about innovation is you have to manifest something. You have to do something. It’s no good having a plan or a strategy that cannot be implemented or doesn’t result in product. And this is where design-led thinking really hits home because it can manifest abstract ideas and concepts into real things.’
With this in mind, Powell injects a note of caution: ‘Watch out for innovation consultants. Some of the bigger industries have been seduced by innovation consultants who have changed the internal culture of a business, worked with HR and training, introduced lots of ‘thinking’ and helped a company spend lots of money – but where’s the product? Without bringing something new to market there is no way an innovation strategy can improve business performance.’
Manufacturers should choose design agencies with a proven track record in appropriate market sectors, with teams of experts that can fulfil every part of the project from user and market research to prototype generation and supplier liaison.
‘Finding a “safe pair of hands” might appear to undermine the creative process before it has even begun, but if its profits and competitive edge you need, it really pays to find an agency that knows your business and your customers inside out,’ says Powell.
Finally, manufacturers who strike up a partnership with a design agency shouldn’t expect any big ideas. ‘Invariably, the best innovations are a whole series of small ideas,’ explains Powell. ‘If you spend your time trying to find the big idea, you will fail.’
Instead, the right design agency will be able to capture their client’s often blurred vision of a potential new product and use every creative, design and strategic tool available to transform that vision into a workable, practical and profitable reality. ‘For most UK manufacturers, their whole business quite rightly revolves around their core product, and there is really very little else. Within this environment, it’s more often the small, incremental improvements to that product that will ultimately make the biggest difference.’
In more depth
To read more from Dick Powell visit our expert article on
Product design or to read why
Innovation matters see the article written by Bettina Von Stamm
Read more helpful advice about design in
manufacturing
