The Process:
Doing business with Amaranthine, LLC is hassle free and straightforward. To this end, there are several reasonable and logical steps that will comprise the development of your device or product. The execution of the comprehensive list of steps shown below is desirable for a complex project. For less complex projects some of these steps may be unnecessary and would be omitted. This fact is made apparent in the narratives given below.
The success of your project is important. The steps outlined below, along with reasonable decisions about which ones to include as part of your project, are meant to facilitate the development of a successful, well designed product or device.

Contact
The first of these steps is, of course, contact. Once you decide to check further into utilizing the services of my company you can contact me at peter@embeddedsystemdesign.com or by telephone at (860) 568-6468 to make arrangements for a person to person meeting or, if that’s not practical, we can have discussions via telephone or email.

I am located in Connecticut, but telecommunications and the Internet have made it convenient to work with clients across the nation. This far, I am working with or have worked with clients that are as far west as Kentucky and as far south as Florida.

Typically, during this phase of the process we would discuss the extent of the services that you require and my experience as it relates to your requirements.

Product Definition:
Once you have decided to use the services of my company we move to the Product Definition stage.

At this stage, you describe the nature of your project in general terms. In keeping with ethical standards, I would then determine if I could take on your project without generating any conflicts of interest with existing or recent clients. Assuming all goes well up to this point, any non-disclosure or other agreements (if any) that you may require are executed.

You would then describe your project in detail. This description includes verbal or written narratives and also may include schematics or mechanical drawings.

At this point your requirements may be strict in nature and I would work exactly to your specification. Or, your requirements may be flexible and you may be looking for suggestions or ideas about the design of your project. I am comfortable working under any of these conditions. 

Pricing and Scheduling:
When I have enough information about your project I will be able to make an estimate of cost and time that the design phase of your project will require and the type of cost/time estimate that I can provide for your project. The costs of any prototyping and pilot production runs required by the project are addressed below under their appropriate headings.

In general, there are three types of time/cost estimates available from my company for the design phase of a project. They are Scoped Time and Material, Fixed Price and Will Call as defined below.

Scoped Time and Material – My company supplies an estimate of the hours required to complete the design and a rate per hour. After we agree on the rate and hours, the work commences and proceeds until the design is compete. Major changes to the original scope of the project will be documented and agreed upon via a written change order and will be billed at the same hourly rate. Final billing will be for the actual hours spent on the design of the project. Regular reports as to the number of hours spent on the design of the project are provided to you as the project progresses. This option is generally used for projects that are complex or have a lot of uncertainty in terms of real world variables.

Fixed Price – My company and the client agree to a definition of the project, the scope of the design work and a fixed price to complete the design of the project. Additionally, the method of payment (either time and materials or fixed price) for change orders is agreed upon. Work commences and proceeds until the design is complete. Major changes to the original definition or scope of the project will be documented and agreed upon via a written change order and may be billed on a fixed price or time and materials basis as defined in the original agreement. This option is generally used for less complex and better defined projects.

Will Call - My company and the client agree on the hourly rate for a project or project(s) yet to be defined. Upon definition of a project, my company and the client agree to conditions similar to either of the two options listed above. This option is provided for those clients that have a periodic need to use the services of an embedded system design and build company such as mine and who would like to have an established relationship with such a company to facilitate decisions about outsourcing embedded system design and build work.

Preliminary Design:
Depending on the complexity of your project, it may be prudent to execute a preliminary design. While this may seem like an “extra” step, it can result in a better quality finished product when a given product is complex or has many real world variables.

For less complex projects, this step may be omitted. If this step were to be omitted we would jump down this list to the step called “Final Design”.

Preliminary Design Review:
If a preliminary design was previously executed, you may want to review it to be sure that the design of your project meets all of your expectations.

This review is not necessarily a technical review, if this is not your area of expertise, but it will always be a requirement review. Does this preliminary design meet all of your stated and possibly evolving requirements for the project? Has anything been overlooked? 

Preliminary Prototype:
If a preliminary design was previously executed and after the preliminary design review, depending on the complexity of your project, you may find it desirable to have a preliminary prototype built. For a complex project, the purpose of this prototype is to work out issues related to project complexity and real world variables.

If this prototype is built you will have a device that would more or less resemble what will eventually be your finished product. You would be able to test this prototype under the working conditions of your choosing to be sure that it meets your requirements and to see if any unforeseen issues arise.

I would, of course, provide you with an estimate of the cost of building this prototype before such a prototype is built. 

Final Design:
In this step of the product development cycle the information generated from any and all of the project steps previously executed is taken and reduced to a quality final design for your product.

For less complex project, where a preliminary design was deemed unnecessary, this will be the sole design phase of the project.

Final Design Review:
This is another design review that may be required for the project. For less complex projects this may turn out to be the only design review.

You may want to use this design review to be sure that the design of your project meets all of your expectations.

As stated above, design reviews are not necessarily technical reviews, if this is not your area of expertise, but they will always be requirement reviews. Does this design meet all of your stated and possibly evolving requirements for your product? Has anything been overlooked?

Prototype or Low Volume Production:
At this stage of the project, one or more units of your product are built. If this product is one-of-a-kind or will only be produced on a very limited basis this may be the actual production run for your project.

At your request, I could facilitate the execution of this prototyping and low volume production work. This work may be done in-house or with the use of outside vendors. The substantial use of outside vendors will require your approval if a non-disclosure agreement is applicable.

I would provide you with an estimate of the cost of executing this prototype or low volume production work before my company began this work.

Prototyping or low volume production can serve several purposes. One purpose is to determine if your product is production ready. Another purpose is to provide a tangible device to present, along with other documentation, to your selected in-house or contract manufacturer to assist them with production cost estimates. Additionally, a low volume production run can produce product samples that can be used for marketing and demonstration purposes.

Full Production:
Fulfilling your customers needs, in volume! You may have in-house production capability or you may choose to utilize contract manufacturers to do this work. In either case I would be happy to assist you with issues related to the ramp up of the production of your product.