Edwin Trisk, based in Sunderland, manufacture infra-red paint curing apparatus for the car bodyshop trade. Their products are sold throughout the world.
The sales force at Trisk have a considerable market knowledge both via selling bodyshop products, and through previous experience in the bodyshop industry. Regular, structured sales review meetings are used to evaluate product performance and provide information to help plan new product development.
Market evaluation indicated that many professional bodyshops were moving away from mobile IR curing products as the bodyshop market became polarised between large professional establishments, and 'sheds'. There were currently competitor products in this market area, which having been evaluated by the Trisk sales force with reference to customer feedback were seen to be either too expensive or of poor quality manufacture and performance.
It was seen that there was significant potential for a product with the right combination of cost and benefits, that could increase the throughput of cars in professional bodyshops, where 'In Booth' panel repairs were becoming more common.
An internal design brief was written and agreed, outlining all necessary performance, cost, functionality, and dimensional criteria based on market knowledge, in house experience and market feedback. In addition all approvals, potential safety features, service and installation issues were documented. This was a critical stage of the project, and the success of the product is undoubtedly due, in part, to the rigour and depth with which the design specification was undertaken.
From this thorough and important foundation, a number of possible solutions were developed by the in house design team.
In order that these solutions could be communicated internally to all relevant personnel, the solutions were accurately illustrated and presented in association with benefits and limitations associated with the concepts. In this way, the development team was able to make an informed decision as to which concept to develop further.
Once a product concept had been chosen, the issue of storage was addressed and, as with the product concept, a thorough list of design criteria was written. A variety of options were then developed covering different manufacturing and performance options. As with the product concept these were illustrated for review by the product development team.
The range of storage concepts developed at this stage was extremely broad and diverse, and as such it became more difficult to make a decision on a final solution. For this reason, a simple decision making process, more commonly seen in the business environment, was used (see illustration). This removed any subjectivity that was seen to be present, and enabled an appropriate decision to be made relative to the previously agreed criteria.
Once a final decision was made, manufacturing was undertaken with sensible haste, and the product released to the market around 9 months after project briefing.
The 'boothmaster' product which came out of the project enjoyed significant market success and achieved 59% export sales despite the relative strength of the pound. It provided a new benchmark for product safety and technology which the competition had to follow in order to compete.
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