SPEAKER SERIESMartin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship & Makerworks

Getting Stuff Made:

Two case studies

Elaine Chen

Spring 2016

Martin Trust Center for MIT

Entrepreneurship

• Founded in 1990 by Professor Ed Roberts

• For all 5 schools of MIT plus Whitaker College

• 2011 – Supercharged with Gift from Martin

Trust (SM ’58)

• Develop, coordinate and integrate a

decentralized innovation and entrepreneurial

ecosystem at MIT

2

Stuff I’ve helped people make

It takes a village, with some vaporware, foam, plastic,

metal, PCBAs, cable harnesses, software, sweat and blood

There is order to the madness

http://hardwareproduct.info

Case Study 1: The Zeemote

($6.50 FOB HK)

Case Study 2: The Zeo Sleep Monitor

Case Study 3: Baxter

(BOM Cost: Slightly more than $6.50, Made In USA)

One size doesn’t fit all.

Apply common sense.

<0.25lb$6.50 FOB HK

Zeemote

Key takeaways

• Making simple board-in-box things

– 6-9m with a good spec

– Low process innovation needed – low risk

– With adequate volume (25k/y+) Asia makes sense

• Making complicated things with moving parts

– 18-36m with a good spec

– Final product performance is 70% design, 30% process

– Expect engineering team to live at CMs for months to get it right

– For most high value, high complexity, low volume products, it is much

easier to start by manufacturing near the R&D Center then

reconsider the right shoring decision as the product matures and the

business scales

• By the way: None of this matters if you got the problem / needs wrong.

Get out of the building and do primary market research!

To Learn More: Check out the Product Development and

Manufacturing sections of the Trust Center FAQ

http://entrepreneurship.mit.edu/faq

Connect with us

Learn more at http://entrepreneurship.mit.edu

Email eir@mit.edu to engage an EIR on your startup

20

Thank you

4/7/201621

@chenelaine blog.conceptspring.com