Reducing time to market has many benefits including increased market share, longer product lifecycles and higher margins, but requires collaboration between departments and companies and the adoption of new practices in design.

During the second world war, the concept of Concurrent Engineering (CE) was born. The basis of CE is the formation of a multi-function team consisting of designers, production, quality and test engineering personnel, and key supplier, to develop a new product. This changes the cash flow profile of the design phase, but can easily reduce time to market and design changes by 75% and production costs by 30%.

Over the last 20 years rapid prototyping tools and techniques have evolved to a new level of sophistication reducing the time taken to receive solid models from weeks to hours and contributing to even shorter development times.

To find out more about how to reduce time to market or to find organisations who can assist, contact the MAS in the South East on 0845 609 2121 where the team can put you in touch with information and local support organisations wherever you are located.

To find out more about the national MAS initiative visit www.dti.gov.uk/manufacturing.