SUMMARY
A leading smart home devices provider needed to address high product failure and product return rates of their radio frequency (RF) remote control on a tight design-to-production turnaround. Tapping on our design engineering expertise in Human Machine Interface (HMI), RF, and LCDs, we completed the design and started production within 6 months, resulting in the reduction of product failure return rate to virtually zero. With the new design, our partner was able to address their challenges, bring down product cost, and increase their customer satisfaction.
THE CHALLENGE: HIGH PRODUCT FAILURE RETURN RATES AND A RACE AGAINST TIME
Product failure can tarnish a company's reputation, decrease brand satisfaction and trust, and impact customer loyalty. Our partner—a provider of smart devices—faced high product failure rate of their existing remote control that led to an increased number of customer complaints and returns. As a result, they needed a solution to address the product failure rate and they needed one fast.
THE SOLUTION: PRODUCT REDESIGN AND QUICK DESIGN-TO- PRODUCTION
Tapping on our design engineering expertise in HMI, RF, and LCDs, we came up with a robust design that addressed the reasons causing the remote control to fail. Throughout the development phase, we ran rigorous tests, DFM, and DFQ analysis to ensure that the new remote control worked to required specifications and exceeded our partner's expectations.
Whilst a design-to-production process typically takes nine to twelve months, the new remote control was launched to market in just six months as we were quick to respond to our partners' needs and had the manufacturing agility and flexibility to meet the short time-to-market requirement.
THE IMPACT: ZERO PRODUCT FAILURE, PRODUCTION COST-SAVINGS AND DELIGHTED CUSTOMERS
With the new remote control, product cost was reduced by 26% leading to cost-savings for our partner. The product failure rate was virtually eliminated, and our partner was able to address the high product return rate and continues to meet customers' expectations, thereby increasing customer satisfaction as a result.