You are developing an industrial product, so the production phase is an important step: how to approach it? Some stages are already completed: your POC has enabled you to test your market and find your funders. You have defined the use cases and produced prototypes. It’s time to get ready to produce significant quantities of your innovation. It is time to finalise your industrial strategy

To do this, several options are available to you and you must make choices. In this case, who better than an industrialist to help you?

Time to make choices 

When developing an industrial product, questions about production are inevitable: should I keep production in-house or outsource it? Yes, but with which partners? All these questions have no predefined, standardised answers.

Let’s look at the main possible schemes:

    • Outsourcing production: in this case you do not manufacture anything yourself, you choose to befabless“. You entrust a third party with the manufacture of your product. However, you must structure yourself to manage this activity with your partner. The skills needed are mainly in the supply chain. To be able to talk to the chosen service provider, you will still need an industrial background. Don’t forget either that your product will “live“: it will undoubtedly undergo modifications (cost reduction, improvements, etc.). You will therefore need to manage these changes with your partner 
    • In-house production: in this case you take care of everything. Of course you will need multiple skills but you are able to control the whole production process. However, you will need a structure, a building, equipment, etc. The necessary investments should be evaluated very early in your project: they can be significant, as you can imagine!  

Industrial strategy: make an informed choice 

Several solutions are available to you. The difficulty lies not in the solutions but in the choice: how to make the right one?

You will have understood that everything depends on your project, your structure and your capacities… Starting with production at a third party and then planning the integration of the production into your structure may be a relevant alternative. Defining an industrial strategy therefore means thinking about and assessing all the possible paths and choosing the right one to take.

One last piece of advice on industrial strategy: think about it very early on, when designing your product. Certain choices in the design of the product can have serious consequences in industrial terms. From an investment point of view, here again, everything can be anticipated.

Axandus, through its support, offers to enlighten you and guide you in finding the path that suits you best.

To go further: we invite you to consult the latest ministerial report on the development of industrial start-ups. We are listed among the structures of interest for the support of industrial projects

So don’t hesitate any longer: contact us and let’s talk!