“How much is this going to cost?”
That’s a question I ask whenever I start a project. Obviously, this is an important question to answer when beginning the industrial design phase for a custom medical cart. Unfortunately, there is no simple answer. There are many factors that play a role in determining the final cart price, none more important than the design itself. To meet your target price it’s imperative to use a design team with an extensive understanding of the processes involved in manufacturing your cart design.
Functional Requirements for Your Cart
Your first responsibility is to provide the industrial designer with the functional requirements for the cart. This typically includes:
- The environment of use
- Anticipated annual volume
- Dimensional specs
- List of “must haves”
- A price point to design to
The industrial design team then goes to work on creating a look and feel that incorporates your requirements into a workable solution. That’s the easy part. The challenge for the designer is identifying sources and getting accurate price quotes for what they have sketched. At this point the question of “What’s this going to cost?” starts to narrow down. Having a target price is important at this stage so that we don’t create a concept that you love but cannot afford.
Manufacturing Processes and Materials
The industrial design team will provide your cart’s price by totaling up cost estimates for the manufacturing processes and materials needed to build your design. HUI has more than 15 years of experience making custom medical carts. We catalog our research and past experiences in a reference database of component pricing. For example, if the concept you’ve chosen uses a cast aluminum base, we look for a comparable one that we’ve made and use it as a basis for our price estimates.
HUI’s industrial design team knows medical carts. It’s what we do. We understand manufacturing and regularly spend time on HUI’s shop floor learning about our manufacturing processes and capabilities. The team also meets with our supply chain to stay updated on the products and processes they can offer us. This combined knowledge allows our team to create a solution that’s manufactured efficiently and close to your target price.
For more information on HUI’s Design and Development Process please contact us today.
