Why DVT manufacturing is a crucial step during your product development lifecycle?

 

Product development, in general, is a tedious process that has numerous needs for iterations and redesigning. DVT manufacturing or, design validation testing, is one of three development or verification/validation tests, that a hardware device must go through until it is deemed ‘market-ready’. We want to highlight the benefits of going through DVT manufacturing and how this step is crucial to the success of the hardware device/product. 

What many startup founders are unaware of is the development cycle of hardware development, and what DVT manufacturing even is. In fact, numerous hardware startups are completely unaware of what EVT, DVT, and PVT are, and become increasingly frustrated and confused when realizing how expensive, time-consuming, and outright difficult it is to pass these stages. 

engineering_graph_product_development_lifecycle

On the other hand, DVT manufacturing is usually the stage you want your company to be at, as it’s a stone’s throw away from actually reaching the market. DVT manufacturing is the product’s almost finalized state. During the DVT stage, your product’s main design should be finalized, re-tested, and ready to move onto the manufacturing lines for testing. 

 

 

What is DVT manufacturing?  

Before jumping into DVT manufacturing, we must understand what DVT is. DVT stands for design validation/verification testing and is the stage that we use to begin your molding & tooling. In addition, we’d usually begin producing roughly 20 – 50+ units to run the validation testing. This can be defined as DVT manufacturing. 

 

What’s extremely important is, beginning to manufacture at your DVT stage, can have many benefits to your business. A DVT sample/product can already be used to ship to your customers, which can also gain further interest among investors. 

 

 

The importance of DVT manufacturing? 

As stated above, manufacturing DVT samples is really the golden stage of your development. It gives you clear insight into how your product is going to ‘float’ on the market, as you can begin shipping DVT samples out to your early backers, investors, and even your target customers (for market feedback). 

 

The behind aspects of the DVT stage, and DVT manufacturing, is that you are finalizing all the ‘design’ aspects of your product/device. At this stage, your device is still prone to small design changes. 

 

Ultimately, the DVT stage is where you’d be having all the tooling (molding), jigs, and fixtures made, ready for the next stage of your first large quantity production run. 

 

 

What companies can help me with DVT manufacturing?  

DVT is a very unique stage that would require you, if you treasure time and quality, to have worked with a company that specializes in more than just DVT manufacturing, or the DVT process. 

 

Shenzhen’s ecosystem is vibrant with companies who’d assist your company with DVT manufacturing. However, finding the right one is a difficult process on its own. This is why, finding a good prototyping company, or joining an accelerator, can often lead you to be referred to a trusting DVT manufacturing partner. 

 

 

DVT can play a vital role in the development of your product and future success. The measures implemented within this stage of product development outline the likelihood of success when entering the market. Due to the testing that occurs and the small number of units produced, it highlights any potential errors and last-minute changes that need to be made before product launch. DVT can generate a very successful product if implemented correctly through specialist companies, that allocate specific resources and time to ensure it meets the market needs. Overall, DVT is a crucial step within the product development lifecycle, that can escalate the success of your product, giving you an edge over competitors within the market.

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