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If you lead engineering or product development at a vehicle supplier, that's the result you want from industrial design. You want a better-looking product, a design your engineers can build the first time, and a schedule that holds. You want the designer to treat your finished engineering as the foundation of the work, because it is.
My team has worked alongside manufacturers' engineering departments for thirty years. On every project we start from the parts, clearances and tooling your engineers have already settled, and everything we draw has to fit them.
WHERE A PRODUCT'S COST IS DECIDED
Most of what a product will cost to make is decided early. Engineering studies reviewed by the Design Society put 70% to 80% of a product's cost as committed by the end of concept design [1]. The decisions made in the first sketches and concepts set the materials, the number of parts, the tooling and the assembly steps. Changes made after that point cost more, because they undo work that has already been done.
That makes the concept stage the most valuable place for industrial design, and it makes the way the designer works just as important as the design. The industrial designer decides the form a buyer sees, and every one of those decisions touches the parts, clearances and tooling your engineers have to build. A designer who works from your engineering at concept keeps those decisions inexpensive.
WHAT YOUR ENGINEERS CARE ABOUT
Engineers take pride in the problems they've solved. In a survey of more than 3,000 engineers and engineering students, 68% named the ability to solve problems as a reason they do the work, and the most common sign of success they named was creating a successful product [2].
The optics your team tuned and the electronics it qualified are that kind of solved problem. For a vehicle lighting maker, they also hold most of the investment in the product, along with the testing and certification behind them. A design that respects them keeps that investment working. It also earns the engineering team's support, because the people who have to build the product can see their own work carried through into the finished design.
HOW MY TEAM WORKS INSIDE YOUR ENGINEERING
KAIA's industrial designers work inside the engineering you've already done: your parts, your clearances and your tooling. On every project that comes down to four habits.
WE START FROM YOUR 3D MODELS
Every concept is fitted to the parts your engineers have already built, so nothing has to be redrawn later to make the design work.
WE SHOW YOUR ENGINEERS EVERY SURFACE
We render concepts in ways engineers can check, including with the lens or cover removed, so they can review each proposed surface against the parts inside before anyone commits to tooling.
WE SHARE THE MODELING WHERE IT MAKES SENSE
When your engineers are already modeling some of the parts, we model the others, so no part is drawn twice.
WE HAND BACK FILES YOUR ENGINEERS CAN BUILD FROM
The final design goes to your engineers as production files, ready for tooling.
The result is a design that fits what your engineers built the first time. Nothing has to be reworked, and the product moves to production faster.
SPEAKING ENGINEERING
Industrial designers and engineers work on the same parts, but they often describe them in different terms. An engineer talks about clearances, wall thickness, draft angles and tolerances. A buyer talks about whether a product looks solid, well made and worth the money. A good design has to satisfy both conversations at once.
KAIA's designers work in both. We read your 3D models the way your engineers do, and we explain each design choice in terms they can check: which surface moved, by how much, and what it clears. Your engineers can confirm a design they're able to measure against their own models, so they sign off sooner and with confidence. It also means the people who build the product are part of the design from the first concept.
THE SAME APPROACH IN FOUR MARKETS
For JW Speaker, a family-run lighting maker with products for heavy trucks, motorcycles, forklifts and off-highway equipment, we designed products in four of its markets. Each time, the inside of the product stayed exactly as JW Speaker's engineers had built it.
HEAVY TRUCKS: A NEW FACE FOR THE MODEL 8800
JW Speaker's 8800 is a 4x6 LED headlight for heavy trucks. Its optics, LEDs, electronics and heater were finished when we started. We worked from JW Speaker's own 3D models of the internals and the existing bezels, heated and non-heated. Every concept was rendered twice: once with the lens on, the way a buyer would see it, and once with the lens removed, so JW Speaker's engineers could check every surface we proposed against the optics, the heater and the wall thickness. JW Speaker's engineers modeled the non-heated bezels while we modeled the heated ones, and a prototype went to the director of engineering for review. The design went into production with nothing inside the headlight changed, and JW Speaker sells it as the Model 8800 Evolution 2 [3].
POWERSPORTS: A BEZEL INSIDE THE EXISTING TOOLING BUDGET
For JW Speaker's adaptive headlight for Victory motorcycles, the optics, housing and lens were already engineered. JW Speaker sent the lamp assembly as a 3D model, and every concept we designed was fitted to those parts and kept inside the existing tooling budget. JW Speaker's engineers marked up the printed concepts during the review, and the next round refined the direction they chose. The final design went to JW Speaker's engineering as production files, and JW Speaker launched the headlight as its own design for Victory [4].
MATERIAL HANDLING: A HOUSING AROUND A FINISHED LED ASSEMBLY
JW Speaker's engineers had finished the inside of a new LED work light for forklifts: the LEDs, the reflectors, the circuit board and the connector. Its senior project engineer sent the brief and the 3D models of that assembly, in two versions that differed only in the connector and the logo area. We designed the housing around those parts with nothing inside changed, reviewed each round with JW Speaker's engineers, and handed back production files. JW Speaker builds the light as the Model 710 [5].
AGRICULTURAL AND OFF-HIGHWAY EQUIPMENT: A NEW LAMP FROM OPTICS ALREADY ENGINEERED
JW Speaker had a family of 90mm lamps, each doing one job, built on optics and circuits it had already proven. We designed concepts for a new lamp that combined two of them in one product, with a new housing, mount, outer lens and bezel around the existing optics. That meant a new product without a new optics program. We presented the concepts in person, so JW Speaker's leadership could see the product before engineering committed to it. The work led to JW Speaker's Model 93, a five-in-one 90mm headlight [6].
A CHECK YOU CAN RUN BEFORE YOUR NEXT DESIGN REVIEW
Ask your designer to show every concept with the lens or cover removed, laid over your own 3D models. Then give the drawings to the engineer who owns the parts inside, and ask them to mark every surface that touches a part, a clearance or a wall-thickness limit.
Anything they mark gets resolved at concept, when a change costs the least. Anything they can't check is a question that will come back later, at a higher price. A design that passes this review is ready for your engineers to build.
Most of the time a well-run design saves comes from that review. When your engineers can see every surface before tooling, the questions that usually come up late get answered early, and the design goes to production the way it was drawn.
SEE IT IN YOUR MARKET
You can see how this worked in each market in our case studies: heavy trucks, powersports, material handling and agricultural equipment. If you have engineering you're proud of and a product that needs a new outside, let's set a 30-minute call to walk through your next product and the engineering behind it.
Jon Levy, CEO, KAIA
REFERENCES
- "Estimating cost: improving the trade-off between performance and cost at the early design stages," ICED'09, The Design Society, 2009. https://www.designsociety.org/download-publication/28771/estimating_cost_improving_trade-off_between_performance_and_cost_at_the_early_design_stages
- National Society of Professional Engineers, "Reflections on Engineering," PE Report, Winter 2022. https://www.nspe.org/career-growth/pe-magazine/winter-2022/reflections-engineering
- Raney's, "JW Speaker 4" x 6" LED Evolution 2 Projection Headlight Model 8800." https://www.raneystruckparts.com/jw-speaker-4-x-6-led-evolution-2-projection-headlight-model-8800
- LEDinside, "JW Speaker Debuts Dynamically Adaptive Motorcycle Headlight for Victory Motorcycles," December 23, 2016. https://www.ledinside.com/products/2016/12/jw_speaker_debuts_dynamically_adaptive_motorcycle_headlight_for_victory_motorcycles
- JW Speaker, "Warehouse LED Work Light, Model 710." https://www.jwspeaker.com/products/forklift-work-light-model-710/
- JW Speaker, "90mm LED Headlight, Model 93." https://www.jwspeaker.com/products/90mm-headlights-model-93/
