EAC Product Development Solutions is passionate about transforming our client’s ideas, needs and challenges into innovative, marketable products that support successful brands — That’s why we created our EAC Design & Engineering Services Team.
Our team consistently works with manufacturers, academic institutions, and engineering and design organizations throughout North America to solve all kinds of engineering challenges.
Finding, selecting, and trusting an outside engineering group is a tall order. We get it. There are a lot of questions people have as they vet potential partners. Here are answers to the top 10 questions people ask about our engineering services. We hope this helps.
1. What engineering services does EAC offer?
Our engineering services team provides mechanical engineering, product design, industrial design, proof of concept, IoT / Smart-Connected design & development, and analysis (FEA) services to help individuals and organizations realize their product ideas and get to market faster.
We are proud to say our engineering team can handle just about any engineering challenge thrown our way. Our complete engineering capabilities include CAD, detailed technical specification product requirements, design validation and optimization, IoT (Internet of Things), smart connected products, manufacturing, FEA (Finite Elements Analysis), simulation, analysis and more.
You can check out our Engineering Services Brochure for specifics on our design and engineering principles, services, manufacturing competencies, and our software competencies.
Still have questions about our engineering services and competencies? You can always send us a message here, and we will be more than happy to personally answer any inquiries you might have.
2. What is the EAC engineering services background?
This is a question we get asked a lot.
We have offered our engineering services for over 21 years and counting. Throughout the course of these years, we have completed over 400 engineering service projects on time and under budget!
It is important to us that you know our engineering services team leverages years of experience and extensive knowledge of industry standards and tools to deliver manufacturable, innovative designs. This is a distinguishing and highly valued characteristic of our company.
3. What is the EAC engineering services project process?
If you have an idea or a project request, our engineering services team will work with you initially at no cost to further scope out your vision. We do this to ensure we have all your proper project requirements and to figure out two things: 1) What you are looking to do and 2) If we are a good fit.
Once we fully understand your engineering project we build out a statement of work. Our statement of work outlines our plan and what we are going to do.
After our statement of work is defined, the team carries out the project delivery under the watchful eye of your dedicated project manager.
Throughout the duration of the project, our team will keep you updated with the daily or weekly status updates. The frequency of the updates is entirely up to you.
No matter the size and the duration of your project, we still use the same project management process for every engineering service project we complete.
4. What are the professional engineering costs?
Our professional engineering costs generally do not vary, but the amount of work we do for customers varies according to the goal. (Keep an eye out for another blog that will dive into this with more detail)
Our engineering team considers the type of project you are looking to complete, the work you need to be done, your project size, your project timeline, and much more.
Because our fees and rates fluctuate due to so many factors, we offer a Free Project Scope to address your specific engineering needs and requirements. This way you can be assured you will get the most accurate engineering project quote. We’re not trying to play our cards close to our chest. We’d legitimately like to talk through your project and provide the best, most accurate quote possible. No strings attached.
5. What similar engineering projects has EAC worked on in the past?
With over 400 engineering projects completed on time and under budget, we have a plethora of project examples to demonstrate our expertise. We’ve worked on everything from consumer products to industrial equipment. We’ve optimized designs for traditional manufacturing, various molding methods, and IoT requirements.
For example, see how our Engineering Services team helped Condux International (Case Study) and Core Distribution (Case Study).
You might also check out how our engineering services team helped Milestone AV Technologies complete a critical project 40% faster.
6. What happens to the intellectual property of my engineering project?
The intellectual property of the engineering services project EAC completes for you is entirely yours. We call this out in our statement of work.
You can think of our engineering services team as your contracted in-house engineers. The rights to everything we do are completely owned by you. If we create something for you, it is entirely owned by you.
At the end of your engineering project we gladly turn over anything and everything we used to create and solve your engineering needs.
7. Can EAC help with fabrication or fabrication partners?
Although we don’t have specific fabrication partners, we are able to help you find companies that can fabricate and produce products for you. Over the years we’ve built a long list of trusted manufacturers.
Whether you are looking for an initial prototype run, a full production run, building only a few products, or you need help transitioning and optimizing your current design for full production—we can help.
Our engineering services team is more than happy to assist you in the process, as well as guide any conversation with the production facility. If you would like our expertise, we’re happy to help.
8. Can the EAC engineers work on-site with our engineering staff?
Our EAC engineering services team can work on-site, but we do have some geographical limitations. Contact us to see if having our EAC engineering services onsite could be an option for you.
9. How many resources can EAC devote to my engineering project?
We have a staff of highly trained and educated engineers, but we are not limited to just that. The resources assigned to any specific project depend on the timelines and tasks defined in the statement of work.
If your engineering project requires additional resources and contractors our team is well equipped (and networked) to work with and manage additional help to complete your project.
10. Does the EAC engineering services team have any references?
Of course. Here are just a few examples of what our customers have had to say about our engineering services:
“EAC was able to decrease the overall weight by nearly half. They did a nice job coming up with innovative solutions to reduce the amount of machining required by the hanging fixture.”
- -Josh Siebert, Engineering Manager, Condux International
“We needed 3D modeling expertise and experience in getting a design to manufacture stage. EAC looked at the mechanics of our product in detail and produced a well-optimized design and high quality drawings.”
- – Eric Wahl, Owner, Colorado Solar Inc.
“The most valuable part of partnering with EAC goes back to having faith very early on that the technical rigor and detail was being addressed. I was assured that the EAC team was going to do the diligence necessary to create a good design because of this.”
– Mike Ardito, Director of Product Development, Milestone AV Technologies
To view other EAC customer testimonials you can always scroll to the bottom of our Design & Engineering Page.
Beyond the typical questions we get asked about our engineering services, we thought it might be beneficial for you to learn the benefits of out outsourcing your projects and how hiring outside engineering help can shorten your time-to-market and give you a competitive edge.
Furthermore, don’t hesitate to contact us about Design & Engineering Services questions.
From industry experience we know how difficult it is to get projects done by end of year – especially when most manufacturing facilities close on average for two weeks during the holidays. When your company is shut down for the holidays who wants to return to all of that work at the beginning of a new year? Let me answer that for you. You don’t.
Our solution? We would like to gift you more time this season. Time, that is, to not have to work on engineering projects that will push back your project timeline into next year and into next quarter. No, we are not work-aholics. Our CEO gives us our holidays off but we do not do a hard shutdown during the holidays like some manufacturing plants do. And we’d like to see you get a head start on your 2018 year goals.
So what does this mean for you? Less work. We would love to offer our engineering services to you when you need it the most. We know you value your time and you’re eager to enjoy some downtime around the holidays.
Want to learn more about our design and engineering services? Check us out here.
You probably have a checklist for what to do when your company shuts down for a few weeks, but if you need a refresher -here are a few steps.
3 Steps to Take if your Company is Closed During Holidays
If you are shut down for the holidays – here is a short checklist you may want to double check to make sure you’re ready to leave for the holidays.
Notify Employees, Customers, Vendors, and Hospitality Services
Notifying employees may be the obvious one but you can imagine that with everyone finding the time to get everything done by the end of the year – it’s easier to plan your to-do list around the time that you actually have when the office is open. So notify your employees internally via email, calendar, Facebook Workplace, or by another platform you’ve set up for internal communication.
Make sure all of your customers and clients know all of the days that you will be closed. This is especially important for those that are trying to get a hold of your business during office hours when you are typically open. Make sure that you have a personal out-of-the-office voicemail set up in case they didn’t get that email you sent. Think about setting up a calendar or a list of all of the holidays and pre-planned office shutdowns to be available on your website so there is no confusion.
Vendors may have reoccurring delivery schedules that need to be notified via phone, text, or email to put a hold on deliverables. And sometimes it may be easy to forget about your hospitality services that come in the middle of the night once or twice a week to clean your office – don’t make the janitors and clean-up crew come in when you aren’t at the office to make a mess.
Turn off Office Equipment & Turn Down the Thermostat
Don’t just say that your business is green – take actions to preserve energy by turning off all of the office lights, any office machinery that won’t be used, and turning down the thermostat for the shutdown. Not only will you be saving energy – you’ll be saving a lot of money in energy costs too.
Prepare to Start the New Year with a Bang
Your customers are going to want to hear from you at the beginning of a fiscal year. What better way to do that than write a refreshing handwritten card to send when you get back into the office from your holiday retreat? If you don’t have time to do a handwritten card because you have a longer to-do list than expected, then at least send an personal email out that wishes farewell to 2017 and a warm welcome to 2018.
Also, sending a letter out is an opportunity to inform your customers of any upcoming and exciting events or products that will hit the market at the start of the new year. They’ll want to hear about what you’ve got in store for them.
Don’t forget to take advantage of our Design and Engineering Services this holiday season – as we would like to help you get a head start on the new year with your engineering projects.
Industrial Design has always been an important element of successful product development. Aesthetically and functionally pleasing products are important to customer perception and ultimately may add to increased acceptance and improved sales.
The Engineering Services Group at EAC Product Solutions solved such an industrial design challenge for a valued customer, Bob Barker Company, Inc. Bob Barker is America’s leading detention supplier and maker of the Vancell, which is a prisoner transport unit that is installed in commercial vans. They approached EAC to create a successor, which ultimately became the Vancell Elite.
Bob Barker wanted the new version of the Vancell to fit newer, redesigned van models. At the same time, they requested upgrades to several user features. They wanted to incorporate design elements to differentiate the redesign of the Vancell from its competitors. The redesign was required to invoke feelings of ruggedness, strength, and security.
With those challenging requirements, the Designers in the Engineering Services Group started by selecting diamond plate panels for the exterior of the access doors to elude to the element of ruggedness. The diamond shaped patterns were then carried through to the ventilation cutouts in wall panels for continuity of theme. A new logo, designed by Bob Barker Company, was added to the access doors as well as laser cut sheet metal brackets. The bracket was painted black with another bracket behind painted orange for a bold, three-dimensional look. A small Bob Barker decal was placed nearby to increase brand awareness. The Designers also added chrome paddle latches and bright screw heads to accent the diamond patterns and create a sense of security.
Next, a new base color was needed for the exterior of the unit. The competitor’s prisoner transport unit was painted a sterile white that easily showed dirt and wear. The old Vancell was painted a dull gray. Bob Barker Company wanted to set themselves apart from both of these units with a bold and dynamic color. Using CAD models created in PTC Creo, the Designers rendered images in different colors to help the company determine which color was best. A medium matte blue was selected.
Upon agreement of design features and colors, manufacturing drawings were released to a third-party fabrication shop. The prototype of the first transport unit was completed in time for display and demonstration at a large trade show. The Marketing and Sales team at Bob Barker Company were excited about the appearance and function of the completed Vancell Elite and confirmed that it met their requirements — rugged, strong, and secure. They also received many positive comments from prospective customers at the trade show.
The VanCell Elite difference is not only through its new and improved design, but it’s features as well. The VanCell Elite provides improved visibility for greater officer security through controlled viewing, PREA compliant segregation compartments, and an enhanced 4 Camera Viewing System and optional DVR upgrade.
Learn more about the VanCell Elite here.
If you have industrial design or engineering project, the Engineering Services Group can step in and mentor you throughout your design process or act as your engineering team. The innovative engineers and designs can help realize your ideas and transform the way you design your products. For more information, contact us here or learn more about our Design and Engineering services here.
The Internet of Things (IoT) sits atop a 3-legged stool. Each leg is as important as the next. If any are missing it all falls down. What are these all-important legs you ask? Strategy, Connected Things, and Platform.
All of the buzz and hype, all of the conversations I’ve had with manufacturing and product development clients, can be grouped into one of those categories. I can’t stress enough how important it is to have those three ‘legs’ supporting any IoT initiative. The hard part is keeping a balanced approach so each leg of the stool is supporting its fair share of the load. This is especially hard when you consider the ‘non-traditional’ product development players the IoT brings to the table. It’s shifting the value of products and transforming companies altogether.
Sometimes this transformation causes such a stir that people and companies tend to ignore the groundwork and adopt a more ad-hoc approach. That’s unfortunate because now, more than ever, business strategists, engineers, and IT need to come together to support a new breed of products.
Let’s build a (theoretical) stool. In the next few paragraphs I’ll explain EAC Connect Services’ 3-Legged Stool analogy.
First, consider Strategy — the ‘why’ leg of the stool. There needs to be a clear connection between any IoT efforts and the value they bring to core business strategy. Since the IoT is clearly shifting product value by adding more information about status, usage, location, efficiency, etc, there can be pretty clear connections made between corporate initiatives and enhanced products with sensors, connectivity and analytics. What’s challenging is bridging the gap created by the language used in different groups. We often see people rattle off business initiatives such as Grow Revenue, Improve Service, Increase Customer Engagement, and Reduce Scrap. Rarely does anyone jump up and say ‘IoT is the Answer.’ Interestingly, the IoT can directly impact each of those goals. The IoT can create new revenue streams based on data acquisition or alternatives to existing service models. It could even change the way products are sold — think ‘Product As A Service’ versus high capital expenditures. How could you be more engaged with customers than through an on-going subscription and monitoring program? And as for scrap, things like machine learning, predictive failure and real-time operational efficiency are just the tip of the iceberg.
Second, let’s consider Connected Things — the ‘what’ leg of the stool. Take a moment and look around the room…seriously, look around the room in which you currently reside. How many connected devices do you see? Now think about the connected devices and systems that you don’t see. I call this ‘pervasive connectivity.’ It’s the notion that connected things are rapidly outnumbering us. Analysts expect there will be about 7 connected and addressable things per person by 2020. These things may connect via bluetooth, WiFi, ethernet, long-range radio, cellular, and satellite signals amongst others. Couple this with ever-shrinking energy-efficient sensors piggybacking on existing products or embedded directly within new ones and we’re ready to analyze streams of data. This could happen real-time, locally or post-facto in the cloud. These connected and enabled things provide data junkies with more data than they know what to do with. And one cool twist is that the back-end systems are learning to mine and manage data on their own. In short, the ‘how’ of smart and connected products comes in layers — base product infrastructure, sensor systems and connectivity form the foundation. Then depending on the objective, analytics may occur real-time, be short-term local or happen ‘in the cloud.’
Third is Platform — the ‘how’ leg of the stool. Consider for a moment the possibilities of a truly scalable cloud IoT purpose-built platform. One where security, connectivity and flexibility are a part of the DNA and easy connection to other enterprise systems like PLM, CRM, MES and the like are not just a notion, but a reality. Picture a platform where these converging streams of data can be analyzed by a learning system that determines what ‘normal’ looks like and autonomously notifies other systems with the right information based on the audience or system. At this point, integrating service information through augmented reality seems like a natural extension and provides the next step in connected product development and the over-the-top service we’re all pursuing. And for some icing on our proverbial cake, how about the ability for ‘non-developers’ to quickly build role-specific dashboards and mashups without needing to write piles of code? While new platforms are springing up, ThingWorx is already in place and providing a central hub for the connected enterprise to meet and even exceed its business objectives.
While all three elements — Strategy, Connected Things, and true IoT platforms — seem somewhat elemental, balancing these will be central to the success of any IoT enabled business initiative. This is the approach we take at EAC through our Connect Services. Whether you’d like help in one, two or all three of these areas, we’d love to partner with you and see your next IoT project flourish.
Imagine getting a text from your equipment in the field telling you there’s been a problem. Not too far of a stretch, right? Well, let’s take the situation a bit further. What if you get an unsolicited thank-you email from your customer who was excited about how fast their last service call went since the service rep had the right parts for the particular problem on the machine. That’s because the cloud-based machine monitoring system had automated communications between the equipment, the supply chain, the service reps truck inventory and the recent training the rep had completed for just this situation. Even further, once on site, the rep pointed an iPad at the equipment and the video displayed an augmented reality video of the machine with overlaid graphics showing both the internal geometry and streaming sensor data indicating the problem and highlighting failing parts. Here’s the kicker — when the rep clicked on the screen to see the details of the issue, a ‘how-to’ video popped up on the screen to step the rep through the repair. By the way, did I mention that the issue was predicted by a different cloud computer monitoring huge stores of data and ‘learning’ while it’s predicting issues?
Ok, so I’m not much of a science writer, but it doesn’t matter because this isn’t ‘the sci-fi of the future.’ This is today. This is what the Internet of Things looks like, and it’s both growing and accelerating. Last week, I attended LiveWorx ’15 with 2500 other like-minded professionals. This PTC Internet of Things conference had another 5000 in attendance virtually as the Boston venue had sold out locally. It was pretty obvious that the buzz continues to grow around this topic and that we’re all interested in growing and accelerating business and product development leveraging these technologies.
While some of the technology and science behind cloud computing is ground-breaking and game-changing, it’s not just about the technology. That’s why having both a business and product development strategy are just as important as integrating the technology into the products. At EAC, we’ve been developing products and helping others do the same for the last 20 years. We’re especially excited about helping companies build and execute their IoT strategy since the opportunity and impact are only limited by the imagination. We’re talking about deeper engagement with customers, reducing operating and service cost, new revenue streams, even products that tell product managers and engineers what customers want in additional functionality or how they’re using your product today. If you’re considering developing or leveraging smart and connected products as a part of your product development and business strategy, we’d love to hear from you and partner with you along the way. If you’re not planning out an IoT strategy, we should talk.
EAC Product Development Solutions is a Minnesota based company providing engineering and product development software, service and consulting to the discrete manufacturing industry. Rob is currently leading the EAC business effort related to product development for the Internet of Things. You can reach out to us and contact Rob at www.eacpds.com/eacpdtcontact.
