Apologies if this post is not relevant to the DMS forum.
I’m launching a company soon that will sell easy to use, plug-in and go, high yield, horticultural products with the goal of providing the common layperson the means of growing more of his or her own food in house. I’m happy with the performance of our prototypes and am now planning towards manufacturing processes on the 10,000 unit scale. We’ve gotten by on my basic understanding of circuits and Arduinos, but surely we’ll want to go with a professionally designed circuit for a large scale manufacturing process. The circuit is pretty basic and comprises some LEDs, a controller with wifi interface, and a couple other basic components. Should we be looking for a professional circuit designer now or will the manufacturer we contract with handle this aspect? If there are advantages to consulting with an EE person before signing with a manufacturer, does anybody have a feel for what typical consultation compensation or hourly pay might cost? Would greatly appreciate any insights.
You can go both ways. There are often EEs that are affiliated with or take jobs for manufacturing houses, or you can use your own. You would want to balance the mild conflict of interest where the manufacturer’s EE may not be looking out for your bottom line, with the fact that that engineer is probably quite familiar with the capabilities and processes of the manufacturer which can reduce manufacturing labor and cost.
I’m not sure if you’re wanting to manufacture domestically, but if you have a design, there is at least one mass-manufacturer in the DFW area that should be able to quote it.
Disclosure: I am also qualified to do engineering work like this, and provide those services to the public.
If they design, they will probably own design and tooling and roll this into price and you won’t be able to move it to another source. If they build to your design, you own it and can move it, may still incur a tooling cost but as to who owns it is negotiable - not sure how transportable electronic production tooling is, so whether buying it or not will determine if worth extra cost.
In general it is not since fixtures are made to fit the machines and processes in that facility. Fortunately everything except for testing/bed of nails is relatively inexpensive in large-scale manufacturing.
Based on my very limited experience with design/build houses in the past, there are two basic rates charged: a lower rate where they own the exclusive right to produce the design (and then sell it to you) and a higher rate where they perform the design work then hand it over to you s you can produce it as you see fit. The spread was about +100% with the consultants my employer dealt with.