Technology Assessment

Solid Design Solutions Australia (Solid Design) designs and develops complex products for consumer, B2B and industrial markets. Conducting a technology assessment very early in the process will determine much of the project plan. It identifies technology related risks to the development process and leads to tailoring the project plan to suit the design and testing needs of the product. Solid Design’s technology assessment will characterise your product into one of five categories. Building a project plan requires understanding which of these categories describes your product.

1. Designing a product which is an incremental improvement over one that is already in the marketplace. The technology(s) has been proven and the market is established. Product users will not need to learn new procedures to use the new product version.
2. Designing a product integrating one technology that is new to the application. The technology has been proven in other applications. The market for the product is established although the new technology will cause some disruption requiring users to perform some tasks differently.
3. Designing a product that combines proven technology elements from other applications in a way not previously combined. The market is somewhat established. The product will be disruptive requiring users to abandon some of the current tools used to accomplish the same tasks.
4. Designing a product that combines technology elements from other applications in a way not previously combined. One or more of the technologies are unproven in any related application. The market is somewhat established. The product will be disruptive requiring users to abandon the current tools used to accomplish the same tasks.
5. Designing a product that combines technology elements from other applications in a way not previously done. One or more of the technologies are unproven in any related application. The market is not established. The product will be disruptive requiring users to learn the use of new tools to accomplish the same tasks.

Phase-Gate

The standard design engineering process used by Solid Design is a Phase-Gate process with eight phases separated by approval ‘Gates’. This process approach is very effective at managing a project where the technologies used in the new product are proven.

• Discovery Phase
• Concept Phase
• Design Phase
• Prototype and Test Phase
• Final Design Phase
• Tool Build Phase
• Pilot Production Phase
• Production Phase

Technology Readiness Level (TRL)

When the technologies to be integrated into the new product are unproven, or are new to the product application, the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) process approach is very effective at reducing technology related risk and accelerating overall development. Originally developed by NASA, Solid Design has customised this technology readiness focused process approach.