Which is the right project methodology for you?

It seems nowadays that there is a rule, methodology and philosophy for everything. Many of these rules have been around for decades so it raises the obvious question, 'are the old methods still relevant in an age of rapid innovation and uncertainty?' This is especially pertinent for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) where even a small advantage can mean the difference between success and failure. Here Prabhjit Singh, production manager at Accutronics looks at the top methodologies and evaluates how OEMs can choose the best one for them.

Developing a new product is not easy. The process of consultation, design, production, testing, logistics, integration and support can be challenging for even the best OEMs. This is made even more difficult in highly regulated industries such as the medical, security and defence markets. Here, products must not only meet stringent regulations, but also perform in extreme environments, where resistance to temperature fluctuations, humidity and vibration shock is critical.

When asked how he developed new products, the late CEO of Apple, Steve Jobs, famously quipped that, "it's really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times people don't know what they want until you show it to them." This very disruptive approach evidently worked for Apple and means that the company continues to produce some of the most desirable consumer products on the market.

Methodologies
So how does one go about choosing a methodology that offers the best of both worlds, a philosophy that is quick to adapt to change and yet is thorough enough to cater for quality control and planning? First we need to see what's available.

Project management methodologies can be broadly categorised into two areas, the first group are the traditional formal methods. The main systems include Prince2, Six Sigma, PMBOK (Product Management Body of Knowledge), TQM (Total Quality Management), QFD (Quality Function Deployment) and the Waterfall model. The second group has emerged from this and is known as lean. This includes lean, agile, JIT (Just in Time), TPS (Toyota Production System) and Kanban among others.

Suit up
To sum up, the formal methodologies all prescribe a holistic, start-to-finish, approach to process driven environments where quality of output must be maintained while reducing the variability of each output. Whether its business or manufacturing, formal methods are all about measurable, quantifiable, result oriented outcomes. This includes cost reduction, optimised time management and a deep understanding of inherent risks and benefits of each action.

While the formal methods are great for large scale, often multinational, projects, they can be difficult to administer. They are usually resource intensive, inflexible and bureaucratic in nature, making them difficult to roll out in smaller projects.

Going lean
At the other end of the spectrum we have the lean methodologies. Popularised by Japanese automotive manufacturers, lean, agile and just-in-time (JIT) systems are all about reducing a process down to its absolute core activities, improving efficiency and reducing wasted resources in the process. Ultimately, lean systems add value by reducing costs and improving delivery times, while maintaining quality.

However, it's not all plain sailing. One of the biggest criticisms of the lean methods is that the focus on optimising a single activity can often lead to OEMs losing sight of the bigger picture. This scope-creep can mean projects lose direction strategically. As well as this, inaccuracies in lean processes can quickly become magnified across the project and if not managed carefully, a lack of documentation can lead to traceability problems when things go wrong.

Choose your poison
So which is best? Well, in order to establish that, you need to consider three issues; external environment, internal setup and ability to adapt. Take Accutronics, for example. If you look at our external environment, you can see that we operate in many highly regulated, life-critical and extreme environments, designing and manufacturing batteries and chargers for medical and healthcare through to security and defence. For us it's important that we can demonstrate traceability, documentation and thoroughly tested products. At the same time we can only hope to achieve a competitive advantage if we understand the subtle and nuanced demands of our customers.

In the second and third stages, OEMs must ensure that physical resources, infrastructure and human expertise are leveraged in such a way that they can adapt to market changes quickly and smoothly. Whether it's a change in legislation, a new innovation in materials research or technological obsolescence, you must either adapt or die.

Plain sailing
Knowing and abiding by the rules is one thing, mastering them and using them for competitive advantage, is a whole new ball game. With a willingness to invest time and expertise, OEMs can hope to continuously build successful products and services time and time again.

Whitepaper addresses medical battery technology

British battery manufacturer Accutronics is making available for download its latest whitepaper, which tackles the issues facing battery design, development and use in the medical and healthcare field. The intention is that it will help Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) better understand the possibilities and limitations of rechargeable battery technology in designing products for the medical sector.

The paper is free to download and aims to inform its readers on three main areas of recent battery design interest. The first is a growing phenomenon dubbed the Apple expectation. It explores the convergence of consumer and professional medical devices and how fitness and health monitoring apps designed by large consumer electronics companies such as Apple and Samsung are impacting on the professional medical industry. 

The second topic looks at digital radiography (DR) and the increasing challenge to design batteries for modern DR applications that still use analogue equipment. This second piece looks at the latest innovations in digital film processing, the essential features of smart batteries, as well as the regulatory and compliance issues of designing, manufacturing and testing medical devices for worldwide distribution. 

Finally, the paper discusses the eHealth revolution, a trend that has witnessed an explosion in the use of smartphones, fitness bands and other wearable technology to monitor acute healthcare conditions in an increasingly ageing population. The piece goes on to look at high profile hospital trials of health apps to monitor patient health, as well as the cost savings the NHS can make from earlier cancer diagnosis.

“We have seen an increasing trend towards smaller, more portable battery solutions in all industries and especially in the medical field,” said Michele Windsor, marketing manager at Accutronics. “With this shift, there has been raised concern about reliable solutions for practitioners in hospitals and other areas where the need for reliable and long-lasting batteries is essential.

“We want to alleviate concerns about battery solutions and ensure that OEMs are informed about the choices they can make so they will not have to rely on inferior, consumer grade batteries.”

To download the new whitepaper for free go to http://bit.ly/HealthcareWP

Standing on the precipice looking down

Have you seen the film Sliding Doors? In the movie, Gwyneth Paltrow's love life and career hinge on one defining moment; whether or not she catches a train. I recently had my own Sliding Doors moment, that illustrated how design for medical devices can easily go in two very different directions.

by Rob Phillips

Smart batteries for medical devices

I was recently invited to a supplier day by an OEM, where the plastics, fan motherboard and smart battery providers got together with the design engineers from the client to talk over a new project. I call this type of gathering a precipice meeting; it allows you to work together as a team, standing on the edge of a precipice before the project truly begins.

In the 'bad old days' suppliers in each of those categories were usually pitted against each other, one manufacturer played off against the other, and the purchasing team would try to pick out good ideas from the various proposals.

Today, the modern precipice meeting is smarter and more inclusive, allowing suppliers to prove their worth by creating the most functional solution, not simply the cheapest. The purchasing people are partnered more effectively with the designers, which can only be a positive when it comes to the end product.

Life-critical applications
Medical technology is one of the world’s fastest growing industries and, because medical devices and equipment can be life-critical, they demand designs which are innovative, but also safe and reliable. During the early stage of the design process it's invaluable to share ideas of best practice and discuss the possible pitfalls. The input produced can have a huge impact on the design and its ultimate success.

Design engineers are clued-up when it comes to their product as a whole, but they can't be expected to be an authority on every component of the design. As battery experts we believe that OEMs should not be shackled by commodity batteries and we relish the chance to align ourselves with creative manufacturers. For us, a huge amount of energy and anticipation goes into every project and it's exciting to play our part in delivering a new generation of medical device.

Sharing ideas
Of course, it requires an element of trust between each of the members of the group, because they share their intellectual property, but the end result is a better environment and product for all involved. It's not just the design engineer who comes away with new ideas, having different manufacturers in the room means that you can all gain insights into areas outside your sphere of activity.


Precipice meetings are true Sliding Doors moments. They are an opportunity to test a project and fix the potential problems a long time before manufacturing begins. I'm sure Gwyneth Paltrow and the rest of the team behind the movie would approve.

Vorgefertigte Smartakku-Serie ermöglicht schnellere Produkteinführungszeit

Entellion Akkus

Accutronics, ein unabhängiges Unternehmen, das Akkus und Ladegeräte entwirft, entwickelt und herstellt, hat Entellion auf den Markt gebracht. Diese neue Reihe von intelligenten, innovativen, tragbaren Akkuprodukten ist speziell auf die neuen Anforderungen funktionsreicher Geräte auf professionellen Märkten ausgerichtet.

Entellion vereint die Fachkompetenz des Unternehmens im Bereich der kundenspezifischen OEM-Akkuprodukte mit seiner Kenntnis der speziellen OEM-Anforderungen und Markttrends. Entellion-Produkte sind ab Lager lieferbar und können auch kundenspezifisch angepasst werden, so dass Hersteller von tragbaren Elektronikgeräten ihre Zielmärkte schnell und sicher erreichen können.

Die ersten vorgefertigten Produkte waren die kreditkartengroßen Lithiumionen-Akkus CC2300 und CC3800, die es Konstrukteuren ermöglichen, intelligente Lithiumionen-Akkus mühelos und kostengünstig in neue tragbare Handheld-Produkte zu integrieren. Sie sollen ein hohes Maß an Funktionalität und Sicherheit bieten, reduzieren die Produkteinführungszeit und eliminieren gleichzeitig die Werkzeug- und Zertifizierungskosten.

Die neuesten Produkte sind die intelligenten Lithiumionen-Akkus der VR Series, die über hochmoderne SMBus- und SBS-konforme Füllstandsmesser mit Impedanzverfolgung, eine visuelle Ladezustandsanzeige mit fünf LEDs, ein robustes Gehäusedesign, eine Sechswege-Steckverbindungsschnittstelle und Gleitschienen für ein einfaches Einsetzen ins Gerät verfügen. Alle Akkus bieten standardmäßig UN38.3- (Transport), IEC62133- und UL2054-Zertifizierung (Sicherheit), so dass sie kostengünstig und mit geringem Aufwand in Geräte integriert werden können.

Das Unternehmen ist unabhängig tätig, kooperiert jedoch mit weltweit führenden Akkuzellenherstellern bei der Auswahl der richtigen Akkuzelle für jede Anwendung, um Merkmale wie Kapazität, Entladungsrate, Lebensdauer und thermische Leistung zu optimieren.

Wiederaufladbare Lithiumionen-(Li-Ionen)-Akkus sind die bei der Stromversorgung tragbarer Elektronikgeräte dominante Technologie. Angesichts ihrer höheren gravimetrischen und volumetrischen Energiedichte bieten Lithiumionen-Akkus längere Laufzeiten und ein geringeres Gewicht im Vergleich zu älteren Technologien wie Nickel-Cadmium-(NiCad)-, Nickel-Metallhydrid-(NiMH)- und Bleiakkus.

„In einer von tragbaren Elektronikgeräten dominierten Welt ist das Akkustrom-Management äußerst wichtig,“ erklärte Rob Phillips, Managing Director von Accutronics. „Durch diese eingebetteten intelligenten elektronischen Systeme können Akkus den eigenen Ladevorgang effizient und sicher verwalten, während die integrierten Füllstandsmesser präzise Echtzeit-Informationen an das Host-Gerät liefern,“ meinte er abschließend.