Latest news with #productengineering
Forbes
11-08-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Look Outside Your Industry To Spark Breakthroughs
Ryan Gray is Co-Founder and CEO of SGW Designworks, a product engineering and design firm featured in The Lean Startup. If your product development team is feeling stuck—turning out small iterations instead of big breakthroughs—it might not be a talent issue. In fact, your people may be doing exactly what they were trained to do: follow industry best practices, stick to what's proven and solve problems within familiar frameworks. But sometimes, that's the problem. When teams go deep in one industry, it's easy to miss solutions that are emerging, or even mature, in other industries. That's where cross-pollination comes in—borrowing ideas, tools and strategies from other fields and applying them in fresh ways. Why Tunnel Vision Happens To The Best Of Us No matter how sharp your team is, working inside the same set of assumptions day after day can limit creativity. Industry constraints—what's 'normal' or 'expected'—start to feel like hard rules. People stop questioning them. Sometimes, they don't even notice them. Add in internal politics or risk aversion, and bold ideas can get sidelined before they're even voiced. An in-house engineer might have a hunch about a radically different approach, but hesitate to share it if it means challenging legacy processes or ruffling feathers. That's why bringing in outside perspectives can be so valuable. A fresh set of eyes—especially one not rooted in your specific industry—can challenge norms, ask different questions and spot patterns that others miss. The Power Of Lateral Thinking A few years ago, a major U.S. medical device manufacturer came to us with a problem. One of their high-value products took way too long to build. They'd spent years trying to automate the process, sticking with tools and techniques common in their industry, but nothing really worked. So, we looked elsewhere. Instead of treating it like a medical device challenge, we treated it like an industrial automation problem. That shift opened up new possibilities. By borrowing methods from other manufacturing sectors, we created a proof-of-concept system that cut production time by over 80%. The company went on to replicate that solution in its two manufacturing facilities that produce the product in question. It wasn't magic. It was just a willingness to look outside the constraints of their own industry. Building A Team That Thinks Broadly One way to make this kind of thinking the norm is by hiring people who've seen a range of problems, not just the ones you deal with every day. We call these people Swiss Army Knives. A manufacturing engineer with experience in aerospace may handle thermal issues differently than someone from consumer electronics. A designer who's built agricultural gear might suggest more rugged designs and materials for a fitness product. That kind of experience diversity doesn't dilute your core expertise—it enhances it. Creating Space For Cross-Pollination Innovation doesn't happen just because you hang posters about thinking differently. It happens when you make room for it. Some ideas: • Ask your team to study how completely different industries approach similar problems. • Bring in outside research and development teams or product development teams—even for short sprints. • Encourage questions like 'Why do we do it this way?' • Make it safe to propose unconventional ideas—even if they don't always pan out. This isn't about throwing out structure or process. It's about giving your team the freedom to explore paths that aren't on the usual map. The best ideas don't always come from inside your industry. Sometimes they're hiding in plain sight—in a different market, a different product category or a different manufacturing process. The companies that thrive in changing markets aren't necessarily the ones with the biggest R&D budgets. They're the ones willing to look sideways, ask new questions and apply old tools in new ways. So, if your team feels like it's running in circles, maybe it's time to step out of the circle. The answers you're looking for might already exist—just not where your product development team is used to looking for them. Forbes Business Council is the foremost growth and networking organization for business owners and leaders. Do I qualify?
Yahoo
18-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Napino & Teksun Unveil Rapidise with $5M Seed Round -- Disrupting Traditional ODM for AIoT Product Development and Electronics Manufacturing
SAN FRANCISCO and NEW DELHI, June 18, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Napino Digital Solutions Pvt. Ltd. (NDS) and Teksun Mircosys Pvt. Ltd. have announced the launch of Rapidise Technologies Pvt. Ltd. (RTPL) to offer end-to-end product engineering and global electronics manufacturing for smart AI-enabled connected devices in automotive, healthcare, industrial, and consumer tech sectors. Rapidise is built to serve as a one-stop ODM partner for startups, SMBs and enterprises designing intelligent, next-gen AI-powered products — combining Napino's scalable manufacturing based in India with Teksun's deep domain expertise in embedded systems, AI, and IoT. "Rapidise represents the strategic convergence of best-in-class product engineering with scalable manufacturing," said Vaibhav Raheja, Joint Managing Director of Napino Group and Board of Director at Rapidise. Strategic Vertical Integration Partnership for Scale Rapidise has already delivered over a Million units of Smart IoT Electronics devices and holds a USD 81M+ booked orders across North America, Europe, Middle East and APAC. Rapidise ODM offering spans product design- R&D, prototyping, certification, manufacturing, and product lifecycle management — delivering seamless execution from idea to market. "Our vision is to be a world-leading ODM player, recognized for our innovation, agility, and commitment to empowering intelligent, high-performance solutions that enable our clients to lead in their markets," said Brijesh Kamani, Founder and CEO of Rapidise. "Our strategic vertical integration of Engineering Services and Manufacturing services under the same roof enables tremendous growth trajectory, ready to power the next generation of AI-enabled IoT products." Global Delivery Backed by Indian Manufacturing and Japanese Technology Headquartered in India, Rapidise operates with fully automated advanced (Japanese) SMT lines (Class 7 Clean room), Camera Module Manufacturing lines (Class 6 Clean room), AI powered PCB Aseembly lines, mechanical tooling, and full box build assembly infrastructure to support high complex electronics product manufacturing like IoT modules, Camera Modules, Dash Cameras, 5G enabled Surveillance cameras, Body Worn Cameras, Asset Trackers, IoT Gateways, Automotive Edge AI Box, Infotainment Devices, Smart TVs, Mobile phones etc. Faster Go-To-Market with ODM Marketplace With over 300 R&D engineers and a robust portfolio of modular, production-ready platforms (Rapidise RISE IoT Modules), Rapidise accelerates the development of custom IoT, AI, and connected solutions — reducing engineering risk and enabling rapid scaling of Product innovations. "At Rapidise, we're transforming how products are built — from concept to mass production," said Ashish Chinthal, Chief Business Officer at Rapidise. "Our self-service platform delivers instant quotes for engineering and electronics manufacturing, enabling on-demand ODM services that are faster, more accessible, and fully transparent — helping customers accelerate their time-to-market." Rapidise Snapshot HQ in India with global presence (US, EU, APAC) 300+ engineers in electronics hardware, embedded software, cloud, AI, and manufacturing Strategic partnerships with Qualcomm to jointly build futuristic AI ready products Turnkey delivery: Design → Prototype → Certification → Manufacture → Support Explore collaboration opportunities at Photo: View original content to download multimedia: Error while retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data
