zebulon solutions

ZebulonSolutions, LLC

Zebulon SolutionsAn old-fashioned company

providingmodern productization solutions

www.zebulonsolutions.com

http://www.zebulonsolutions.com/



Executive Summary

Our Mission…is to deliver solutions that save our clients money and time.

Our Business…is productization—turning R&D projects into manufacturable products.

Our Culture…is old-fashioned, dedicated to doing business in an honest, low-cost, straight-forward and incredibly hard working fashion.

Our Markets…are diverse, including electronics, industrial and automotive, but we specialize in medical and clean-tech.

Our Productization Services include:Technical Services Business Services Product Design Program management Technical Analysis Fractional executives Industrialization Business analysis

Our DNA hails from the corner of Design Alley and Manufacturing Boulevard, from which we have launched over 100 products




What We Do

We turn R&D projects into optimized, manufacturing ready products

Idea

DesignIndustria

l

ization

Manuf

acturi

ngProducti

zation!




Keith HowardVice President

Old ZebSage Advisor

Chuck HodgesPresident and CEO

Who We Are

We’re a couple of hard-working guys who escaped the corporate high-tech velodrome to try to make a difference




Who We Are

Our Team

We have a rapidly growing stable of independent contractors who work with us as needed and are dedicated to getting the job done• We stand behind the work of all our contractors.• Weekly reviews with you on your programs keep you up to date.

Most of our team have at least 15 years industry experienceo Medicalo Electronicso Consumero Environmentalo Mil / Aeroo Clean-Techo Computerso Telecomo Ranching

Our skills cover many different disciplineso Hardware designo Software / Firmwareo Mechanical design and toolingo Chemistry and physicso Test developmento Supply Chaino Businesso Program Managemento Intellectual Property Rights




Who We Are

Our DNA

We’re a young company, but our management group has 50+ years of productization and business experience, and our team of contractors has 100+Some notable achievements:Productization of the original PalmPilotDeveloped and deployed over 500 test fixtures

and systems for the XboxComplete design, industrialization, and tooling

of the Whirlpool Duet dryer consoleConcept and prototype design of the first Tablet PC

reference design for MicrosoftDevelopment of PRNDL shifters for General MotorsMultimillion dollar cost reduction effort of blood glucose

meters for J&J’s Lifescan divisionDesign validation testing of tape libraries for QuantumDesign of custom high voltage driver ICs for Philips SonoSite




Where We Are

We’re located in Berthoud, ColoradoPopulation 4000, not counting the cowsLess than an hour from University of Colorado,

University of Denver, University of Northern Colorado, and Colorado State University

Denver, Boulder, Ft Collins, Longmont, and Loveland are all within a 45 mile radius

And we’re only an hour from Denver International Airport




Where We Are

Berthoud, CO




Where We Are

Act Local, Think Global

Just because we’re old-fashioned folks from a small town in Colorado doesn’t mean we’re not global. If the right answer is design in India and

production in Poland we’ll make that happen. Been there, done that.

We’ve also done it in the USA, Canada, Mexico, Germany, Hungary, Austria, Sweden, Norway, the UK, Singapore, Australia, Thailand, South Africa, France, Malaysia, Japan, India and let’s not forget CHINA.

We get on airplanes so you don’t have to.

We get on airplanes so you don’t have to




We have a long and distinguished track record of taking diverse products from science project to volume production. Examples:

Productization

Productization: taking a concept and turning it into a production stable productThe design phase is usually where 80% of the effort is typically spentThe final industrialization phase is where 80% of the problems typically occur

o Base stationso Telematic systemso Optical switcheso Enterprise telsetso Dryer consoleso Tape libraries

o PDAso Game consoleso MP3 playerso Cell phoneso Satellite receiverso Blood glucose meters

This is not as simple as it sounds, and it doesn’t sound simple




Service Offerings

Zebulon Solutions offers variety of technical and business services:

Technical ServicesProduct Design Turnkey product design Design services Independent design analysis

Technical Analysis Tolerance analysis Failure mode effect analysis DFx analysis

Product Industrialization Production test development Tooling support Project engineering Supply chain development Process development

Business ServicesProgram Management Project, program or portfolio management Turnkey or partial PMO setup

Fractional Executive Technical and operational executives on a

fractional and / or interim basis• VP Eng / CTO• VP Ops / COO

Business Analysis ROI analysis Risk analysis Business plan financials




Service Offerings

Engagement examples

We can do as much or as little as makes sense. Suggestions:End to end program management• Your program, managed by a professional

Concept studies• You provide the brilliant technology idea and market data; we turn it into a product concept

Design services• We provide electrical design, layout, ME design, ME CAD, and firmware / software

Point solutions• We can help you get prototypes built, find a test lab, solve your pack-out problem, etc

Product industrialization• We can fully develop your supply chain; help you choose a manufacturing partner; set up special

processes; bring up your product at the manufacturing site and qualify your processTest development• Develop a full test plan including design validation test, production test, and outgoing QA




Service Offerings

Examples by Phase

Concept phase We can provide full teams to take a tight look at your product idea and provide a detailed analysis

as to what it will take to get the product into production Deliverables examples: Target BOMs; manufacturing analysis; specs; concept protos

Development phase We can provide full or supplementary design resources as well as program management We can do the full design; pieces of it; or just do the program management of your team

Prototyping We manage the outsourcing of your prototypes with local manufacturers

Validation We can manage 3rd party validation and regulatory labs

Industrialization We plan this out, set up your supply chain and test, manage your tooling, and work with (and help

select) your manufacturing partner to get the production process up and stable




Product Design

Turnkey product designProduct design and development• Full turnkey design• Everything from design to tooling; software

to test fixturesSubsystem design and development• Ownership of a subsystem or subassemblyo E.g. control PCBA or enclosure

• Ownership of a specific discipline(s)o E.g. full hardware and software

Design servicesDesign services• E.g. layout, schematic capture, mechanical

CAD, GD&T analysisDFx analysis• Analysis of existing or in progress design for

manufacturability, testability, environmental compliance (RoHS), etc

Cost Reduction analysis• Analysis of existing design for potential cost

reductions

Independent design analysisA second set of expert eyes to review a design, to see the forest for the trees.




Product Design

Design Disciplines

Mechanical Part breakout and stack up Materials and component selection 3D and 2D CAD design Mechanical DFx Tolerance analysis Mockup and pre-production build Tooling support

Software / Firmware High level design User interface scenarios Detailed design Language selection, environment setup Code implementation and test Embedded and web services

Electrical System architecture Component selection Circuit design and schematic capture PCBA DFx PCB layout Prototype PCBA builds Board checkout

System Requirements capture Solution ideation System architecture Design specifications Test methodology and planning Verification and validation System integration




Product Industrialization

Product industrialization is…Setting up production infrastructure, processes and equipment to enable the successful

launch of a new product concept and turning it into a production stable product

Industrialization tasks include:Set up and optimize the supply chainTool design, manufacture and validationSet up and optimize manufacturing processesDesign validation and regulatory testingDevelop test processes, fixtures, equipment and softwareDesign and build custom manufacturing fixtures and equipmentProgram management of the industrialization process

While industrialization is commonly viewed as the back end of the product development life cycle, it needs to start at the same time as the design




Product Industrialization

Test DevelopmentEngineering verification test (EVT) developmentDevelop test procedures, fixtures, software and simulated loads to enable the iterative

testing of early engineering prototypes

Design validation test development (DVT) developmentDevelop test procedures, fixtures,

custom equipment and simulated loads

Production test developmentDevelop test processes, fixtures,

equipment and software• Process test• Functional test• Parametric test• Out of box or other QA audit testing

While EVT, DVT and production test all have separate and distinct requirements, there are synergies and reuse opportunities as the product life cycle progresses.




Technical Analysis

Why do engineers need to do technical analysis?Technical analysis is necessary to validate or disprove engineering hypotheses. Analysis also provides feedback to design and manufacturing teams

Zebulon Solutions can provide many different types of technical analysis, ranging from spreadsheet models to complex simulations to collective analysis, including:Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA)Tolerance AnalysisDesign for Manufacturing / Assembly / Test / Environment etc (DFx)Other technical analysis, including:• Finite element analysis (FEA)• Power consumption• Circuit simulation• Carbon footprint• Mean time to failure (MTTF) or Mean time between failures (MTBF)

Good engineering starts with proper analysis




Technical Analysis

FMEA

Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA) is used to predict potential failure modes Both design (DFMEA) and process (PFMEA) FMEAs are necessary for a complete solutionWhen done properly, FMEA’s allow for proactive solutions before problems occur, before

returns come back from the field, before yield crashesAn FMEA can also save money on actual testing by focusing on the items most in need of

test:• Verification• Validation• Production, or• Out-of-the-box (OOB) audits




Technical Analysis

Tolerance Analysis

Tolerances can be mechanical, electrical, optical or a combination

Tolerances have a severe impact on• Functionality• Manufacturability• Yield• Performance

Tolerance stack ups are the main culprit• Where one component aligns to a second

which in turn aligns to a third, and so on• Instead of all aligning to a datum

Geometric Dimensioning & Tolerancing (GD&T) is one rigorous variant of this type of analysis




Technical Analysis

DFx

Proactively analyzing a product early in the design phase for manufacturability etc can significantly reduce eventual product cost and speed time to volume. Design for Excellence, or DFx, covers a broad range of disciplines, including:Design for Manufacturing (DFM)Design for Test (DFT)Design for Assembly (DFA)Design for Environment (DFE or DfE)Design for Supply ChainDesign for Lowest Cost

It is essential that DFx is a collaboration between the various design and manufacturing disciplinesDFx cannot be done by design alone, nor by manufacturingZebulon Solutions can help bridge the gap between these organizations

If you wait until the design is done to do DFx, it’s too late




Program Management

Program management is the cornerstone of our service offering. Our program management services include:Direct management of programs• Turnkey program management• Project or subproject management• Our team are seasoned veterans with many programs completed• From Concept to Product Launch

Program Management Office• We can provide in-house program managers with a PMBOK based system• Includes reviews, mentoring, portfolio data and statistics ,oversight, post mortems, more• We can even help set up an in-house own PMO

When we say “Program Management” we really mean “Portfolio, Program and Project Management” but that’s a mouth-full




Program Management

Zebulon Solutions Product Life Cycle

Zebulon Solutions uses a modified phase-gate Product Life CyclePhases• Concept: Ideation, feasibility analysis, and proof-of-concept prototypes• Design: Detailed design and verification• Prototyping: Building engineering and validation prototypes• Validation: Testing the design to prove adherence to all specifications and requirements• Industrialization: Develop and validate supply chain, tooling, test, manufacturing process• Program Management: Manage all aspects and resources of all phases of the program

The end of each phase is demarked by a phase-gateWhile some of the phases are in series, a substantial amount of parallelism is required

Industrialization

Validation

Prototyping

DesignConcept

Program Management

Stable Production




Fractional / Interim Executive Program

Zebulon Solutions provides highly qualified executives on a fractional and / or interim basis. Unlike most CxO companies, we provide executives with world class technical and operations skills as well as business acumen.These executives can provide seasoning to young teams; manufacturing expertise to R&D centric teams; or just, put bluntly, provide adult supervision. Fill a temporary hole fast or take advantage of the cost benefits by only paying a fraction.Examples of actual engagements:VP Engineering for an Australian consumer

electronics companyVP Operations for a Colorado clean-tech startupVP Engineering for a Silicon Valley industrial

products companyCFO for a Colorado electric bike manufacturer

A month or a year; 10% or 90%




Business Analysis

Zebulon Solutions can provide a variety of business analysis types to help our clients manage their own businesses more effectivelyCash flow analysis Inventory analysisROI analysisRisk analysis

Because we also have extensive operations experience, we can bridge the finance and operations world, so that, for example, inventory solutions take into account not just cash flow but also yield risks and supply chain impact

“Cash is king” is not just a saying; it’s the truth




Case Studies

Real case studies at Zebulon SolutionsMedical instrument: Proof of Concept design, DFx review, prototypingGreen dry cleaning: Operations leadership, supply chain development,

FMEA, financial analysis, program managementNetwork storage library: Cost reduction and GD&T analysisDisplay touchpad: Engineer leadership, design assessment, systems

engineering, FMEA, tolerance analysisGaming accessory: Feasibility study, cost estimatesElectric bike: Developed business plan and financial systemsBattlefield medical device: Feasibility studyIndustrial lighting: Proof of Concept design and prototypingNeural network processor: Design update, PCB layout




Customer Feedback

I can not say enough about the value of services and the highest caliper of expertise Zebulon Solutions provided. Their team of highly qualified personnel helped make any challenge we faced seem so easily resolved, I would never hesitate including them in the future.

Maureen

Good luck with the next project. I think Zebulon Solutions rocks!!

Best

semo

Chuck and Keith have extensive experience bringing products to market, with particular focus on designing for manufacturability. I have used Zebulon Solutions to help us with design reviews and DFMEA work. They are great to work with, and have been very helpful.

Ken

Our customers seem to like us.




Our Blogs

Zebulon’s ThoughtsOld Zeb opines on the 21st century from a 19th century point of view

On ProductizationInsights into the art and science of productization

www.zebulonsolutions.com/productizationblog/www.zebulonsolutions.com/Zebsblog/


http://www.zebulonsolutions.com/productizationblog/

http://www.zebulonsolutions.com/productizationblog/



Contact info

Keith Howard: [email protected] +1 970 372 9400

Chuck Hodges: [email protected] +1 303 653 3455



Thanks a million!Ya’ll have a nice day



zebulon solutions

Documents

prototype design

university of colorado

xbox complete design

corner of design alley

business experience

university of denver

llc zebulon solutions

tablet pc reference