Succeeding in today''s extremely competitive promotional toy industry requires much more than creative concept development. Winning in this market, which follows short, seasonal cycles, often with tie-ins to popular movies and television shows, also demands the ability to come up with, communicate, and deliver fun, safe, and cost-effective designs in a fraction of the time of traditional design and production cycles. While most product development organizations gauge design cycles in months, manufacturers of promotional toys and premiums typically must develop designs and initiate production in a matter of weeks, often completing concepts for presentation to a potential customer before even securing the business.
Strottman Int''l (Irvine, CA), a leading manufacturer in this market -- with customers such as Arby''s, Taco Bell, Whataburger, and Chick-fil-A -- has made a strategic investment in advanced design, prototyping, and production technologies to gain a competitive edge. And the strategy has paid off. According to Dave Duncan, a project engineer/new technologies specialist in Strottman''s Operations Group, the company began investigating rapid prototyping technologies a couple of years ago as part of an effort to shorten design cycles, reduce prototype development costs, streamline production, improve customer presentations, and capture new business opportunities.
"At one point, we produced design prototypes exclusively by sculpting them out of clay," Duncan recalls. "After we moved to the SolidWorks® 3D CAD system, we sent STL (stereolithography) files to a local service bureau to create prototypes. While that approach reduced the time required to produce prototypes, at $3-4,000 per piece it remained costly."
Strottman engineers believed that by investing in an in-house rapid prototyping capability, the company could not only achieve substantial time and cost savings but also use physical models to secure new business and streamline production. The company benchmarked rapid prototyping and 3D printing systems from six major manufacturers before selecting the Z®406 Full Color 3D Printing System from Z Corp (Burlington, MA). Duncan says Steve Murawski (senior vp of operations) chose the Z Corp system because it was the fastest rapid prototyping system available, provided full-color capabilities, and had one of the lowest cost-per-model figures in the industry.
"Speed and cost were our main selection criteria, and the Z Corp machine came out on top on both counts," Duncan explains. "We have not produced any prototypes on the Z Corp system that cost more than $20 in materials, which is a dramatic improvement over the $3-4,000 we used to spend with a service bureau."
Winning New Business
The impact of the Z Corp 3D printer on new business initiatives was immediate. Two weeks after purchasing the system, Strottman was able to use color 3D prints of concepts the company had developed for Tonka®-licensed sand toys to win the contract.
"We went from a napkin drawing to a color model in a couple of days, and when we showed the model to the customer, he loved it," Duncan says.
The ability to enable customers to touch, feel, and play with prototypes has elevated Strottman''s concept presentation capabilities, which is helping the company gain new customers and grow its business. On another opportunity, Strottman presented 3D prints for a small plastic train to Whataburger, a leading restaurant chain in the southern U.S.
"Instead of line drawings or CAD models, we had a beautiful, little model to show them," Duncan notes. "The customer was able to hold and touch the model and notice the fantastic amount of detail on that train, which they bought at that very meeting."
Strottman''s success in using 3D prints as a tool to win new business has led the company to market its rapid prototyping capability as a key differentiator that sets it apart from its competition.
Streamlined, Cost-Effective Production
In addition to winning new business, in-house 3D printing capability is helping Strottman to interact more effectively with its production facilities in China to manufacture products more precisely and efficiently. Aside from creativity, the most important aspects of Strottman''s designs are safety and material usage: safety because the target market is predominantly children; material usage because of the large volumes and slim margins involved.
Strottman engineers use COSMOS® finite element analysis (FEA) software to validate designs and make sure that they satisfy all applicable child safety standards. "We use FEA to look at designs and make sure they will pass safety requirements, such as a 100 lb bite test, before we send them off to the manufacturer," Duncan explains. "This way we know the products will pass testing specifications before they are manufactured, and by sending a 3D printed prototype along with the CAD files, we gain additional confidence that the final product will match our analyzed, validated design."
The combination of 3D prints and FEA also enables Strottman to minimize material usage without sacrificing strength and safety as well as project production costs more accurately. "ABS plastic costs about $1.85 per kilogram and when you''re running millions of pieces, every little bit helps," Duncan points out. "In the past, it was a common practice to throw plastic at areas of concern. Now, we optimize our designs to use as little material as possible while maintaining quality. 3D prints help us to ensure that the final product matches the validated design and allows us to be as accurate as possible with our manufacturing cost estimates."
Fast Return On Investment
It did not take long for Strottman to realize a return on its investment in a Z Corp 3D printer, due to the impact of physical prototypes on new business development. "We achieved payback on our investment within 90 days," Duncan says. "We were able to secure additional business by grabbing the attention of buyers with quick prototypes and retained that business by using 3D prints to communicate more effectively. In just three months, we won enough business, and retained enough business for a second order, to pay for the equipment. Since then, the machine has paid for itself many times over."
Duncan says that the company anticipates additional ROI from its Z Corp 3D printer by pushing the technology further into the front-end of design. "3D prints provide value and efficiencies at every step of the product development process," he notes. "We expect our benefits to grow as we use 3D prints to make as many decisions upfront as possible. It''s a great machine, and we are constantly on the lookout to use the technology in new and productive ways."