Stoneridge’s new digital tachograph, designed by London Associates, was released to the market at the end of March 2006. It had taken less than a year to develop, it hit the company’s strict deadline, and Engineering Manager Bob MacKinlay was impressed by what he says was an incredible feat.
‘In our industry, design times can take up to five years but we had to do this quickly. Eleven months turnaround time in any business sector is good. But in ours it’s excellent.’
He’s also impressed by the OPTAC digital download device’s commercial success. Stoneridge’s customer base of 1,600 in 2006 grew to more than 10,000 by April 2007 - a 971% increase in one year. Sales of the device were 452% above expectations and there was a 260% increase in new business. The OPTAC also has an incredibly high customer conversion rate, which MacKinlay attributes to its effective and appropriate design: after handling the product 90% of customers purchase a device.
It might not look like much more than the digital signature pads all good delivery firms use nowadays, but unlike some of them, it’s been designed to feel right when users’ get their hands on it, and to work easily when they need to download information at the end of a long work day.
‘Initial feedback is that the handheld tool is the best on the market for performing that particular function,’ says MacKinlay. ‘It may not be the cheapest product but it is the best. We’ve had very few returns, which in my opinion underlines its high design values.’
The design has also helped the company achieve manufacturing cost reductions. It now costs 41% less to manufacturer, thanks to the fact that the manufacturing plant in Tallinn produces 800 units a week compared with 250 a week for a previous product.
Looking back on the project, one of the main reasons that it worked so well, according to MacKinlay, was that he quickly got all of the stakeholders to sign up to a shared vision. ‘You have got to get people engaged and convince them that this is something new, something sexy, something worth getting excited about,’ he explains. This is where design can help. By creating prototypes and helping people to visualise an end result, designers can speed up the development process.
‘When you’re driving a project you have got to inject enormous energy levels. You have to support them and motivate them. It was tough going but people were engaged from the very start and everyone knew exactly what they were doing and when they were supposed to be doing it.’
Indeed the only thing that MacKinlay felt could have been better was the project initiation - there was a slightly staggered start because the software was finished ahead of the hardware, whereas normally with this type of product it’s the other way round.
Otherwise the process ran smoothly and the OPTAC brand has rapidly become synonymous with digital downloads. ‘I had a view of what I wanted from the start and I knew with a high degree of confidence that using London Associates would get me to that point,’ says MacKinlay. ‘In fact in the end they managed to exceed my expectations.’
