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Stage-gate engineering that decides cost, risk, and schedule before tooling
Send your concept or current design. Get a roadmap to launch. Free.
Most of a product's cost, risk, and schedule is decided early, in concept and design. When engineering arrives late, teams pick one of two costs.
They lock the concept early and pay for its problems in tooling, test, and production. Or they find the issues in prototype after prototype, where every loop costs money and moves the launch date. Our product development services bring engineering, analysis, and manufacturing checks into those early stages.
Decisions are made with evidence while changes are still cheap, and the design reaches production with its cost, risks, and tests worked out. We run the stages with our own CAD design services, DFMA services, and multiphysics simulation in one team.
✓
A launch date that keeps moving
Problems surface late, when fixes take months.
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Prototype after prototype with no clear end
Each loop finds a new issue.
✓
Unit cost above target at production
Cost was never designed in from the start.
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A concept nobody has engineered yet
Ideas need analysis before they need tooling.
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Small team, too many disciplines
CAD, analysis, and manufacturing can't all be covered.
✓
Decisions made without data
Gates pass on opinion instead of evidence.
Cost you carry
Decision it lets you make
Result
Unit cost
Material & weight
Decision
Set cost and performance targets at the concept gate, then design to them from the start.
→
Result
A product that meets its cost target at launch.
Development
Prototypes & testing
Decision
Analyze and test early concepts before you commit, and use prototypes to confirm, not explore.
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Result
Fewer prototype loops and a steadier schedule.
Tooling
Rework & redesign
Decision
Find manufacturing and reliability problems in design reviews and fix them before tooling.
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Result
No redesign after first article; tooling is built once.
After launch
Field failures & warranty
Decision
Pass each gate on evidence, with documents your team, suppliers, and customers can review.
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Result
Fewer late surprises and a program you can defend.
01
A design that meets your loads at the lowest total cost, delivered as production-ready CAD and drawings
02
FEA results and margins you review and approve at each gate, before anything moves to prototyping.
03
You own the IP by default, set in your contract.
04
If we missed it in our QC, we fix it. If your supplier can't make the part within three years, or supply dries up, we fix that too.
You send
What we need to start
CAD, native or STEP
Loads and operating conditions, or how the part is used
Material specs or test data, if you have it
Targets: weight, cost, life, or code
Failure history, if a part already failed
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You get
What you hold at the end
The optimized design: CAD and drawings ready for production
Models and results you reviewed and approved
Documented margins or code compliance
Test correlation, when testing is in scope: a partner lab or yours
A roadmap for what comes next, and a team that stays with you
We price to the value we deliver, not the hours we log. If the value isn't there for you, we'll say so in the assessment.
We review your project scope, requirements, and targets, and screen the biggest risks.
Scope, targets, and gates, from where you are to where you need to be.
CAD, analysis, and DFMA loops, with prototypes and tests at each gate.
The design, drawings, and models, second-checked in our QMS.
We stand behind the design through production and supply issues.
Our engineers run CAD, FEA, CFD, and DFMA as one loop. Each gate checks performance, cost, and ease of making together, so the design you approve is the design that ships.
Shape first, engineering later
Or patch it until it does
Tooling and test article paid for
Problems show up in prototype
New geometry, new prototype, new test
Which risks matter at each gate
CAD, analysis, DFMA
Geometry refined to real margins
Second engineer verifies the model
Build once, to confirm
Every prototype loop you fund moves your launch. Get a free roadmap.
Get Your Free RoadmapBrackets, housings, and assemblies developed to the documentation and test standards flight programs need.
Lighter parts, proven.
Applications
Stage-Gate
Analysis
Testing
Documents
New components developed from concept to production design for the high volumes your suppliers run today.
Built for high volume.
Applications
Concept
DFMA
Tooling
Validation
New equipment and major upgrades developed with field loads, service access, and wear designed in early.
Stop costly downtime.
Applications
Field Loads
Service
Wear
Fatigue
Skids, vessels, and process equipment developed with cleanability, validation, and cost in mind early.
Pass the review first.
Applications
Skids
Vessels
Validation
Cleanability
FEA, CFD, CAD, DFMA, and testing under one roof. Engineering is a team sport, and you get the whole team.
One team, every skill.
Under One Roof
FEA
CFD
CAD
DFMA
Testing
Veteran-owned SDVOSB status gives defense and federal buyers a set-aside path to proven engineering.
Verify our SDVOSB status.
Credentials
SDVOSB
VOSB
CAGE 8ZK73
NAICS 541330
Missed something in our QC? We fix it. Supplier can't make the part within three years? We fix that too.
Support for the long run.
We Fix
Our QC Misses
Supplier Gaps
Supply Chain
We price to the value we deliver, not hours logged. You buy a design that works, not more iterations.
Pay for the result only.
Collections
Gold
Platinum
Diamond
Product development firm vs in-house team: which does my program need?
Use outside product development services when your program needs engineering it can't staff, at the stage where it matters most. Watch for five signs. The launch date keeps moving out. Prototypes keep finding new problems late. Unit cost lands above target. A promising concept has never been engineered. The fifth sign is a small team trying to cover CAD, analysis, and manufacturing at once, so gates pass on opinion. Each sign costs more at every stage the program passes. The GAO assesses programs against knowledge-based best practices. It found recurring cost increases and schedule delays, and flags risk where programs stray from those practices.
Bringing engineering into concept and early design is where it pays the most. We review your project scope and targets in a free assessment and tell you where the risks are. Many programs need help at one or two gates, not all of them. If your team needs only one skill added, we say so plainly. Our product design and development guide explains the stage-gate method we use.
How does your stage-gate process work?
Our product development services run in stages, and each stage ends in a gate. The stages move from idea and concept through engineering and launch, to support in production. Without gates, a program drifts forward on hope, and problems wait until tooling to show up and cost far more. A problem found at a concept gate costs a sketch. The same problem found after tooling costs a new tool and a moved launch. That is why NASA splits its project life cycle into phases, with a go or no-go decision at each boundary. Stopping early on bad news saves far more than pushing on.
At each gate, the design has to show evidence: analysis results, test data, cost estimates, and manufacturing checks. You review that evidence and decide whether the program moves on, changes, or stops. Gates also check that the requirements still make sense as the design matures. Every program is scoped on its own, so your roadmap sets the stages and gates. The free assessment is where that roadmap starts.
Can PPS work with our manufacturer or test lab?
Yes. Our product development services work with the shops and test labs you already trust, or with our partner network. Many programs use both. What matters is that one engineering team ties them together, so every party works from the latest design and the latest data. When each vendor reports to you on its own, you become the integrator. Changes travel by email, parts get cut to old drawings, and test results arrive with nobody tasked to act on them. The Defense Department's IPPD Handbook organizes programs around integrated product teams for this reason, with design, build, and test working to one plan.
We manage your builders and test labs inside one engineering loop. We release the design, track each prototype and test, read the results, and make the fix ourselves. NDAs cover every party from the start of the program. You decide how far we take the design, up to the start of production. We never run production, and you own the IP by default, set in your contract.
Who owns the design and the models?
You own the design, the drawings, and the models from your product development services project at delivery. Some firms keep the models, or license them back to you, so every later change sends you back to them. That locks your product to one vendor and makes design reviews harder, because your team can't open the evidence behind the decisions. At PPS, the IP transfers with the solution. Nothing is held back to tie you to us. You receive the native CAD, the drawings, the simulation model files, and the documented results. Your engineers can then check the work, rerun a load case, or hand the package to a supplier or customer.
We sign mutual NDAs before any of your data is shared, and your files stay in our controlled project folders while we work. If your program has export-control or customer data rules, tell us at the start and we will set up the data handling to match them. For defense programs, the State Department ITAR guidance sets the rules we follow.
What happens if a prototype fails in test?
If a prototype fails in test, we find out why and fix the design. Hard engineering carries unknowns on any project: real loads, material lots, and assembly effects never match a model perfectly. With product development services from PPS, you approve the data at each gate. A test result is then checked against predictions you have already seen, not a black box. A failure in test is data. It shows which assumption was wrong: a load, a material property, or a boundary condition. That data improves the model and the design.
When testing is in scope, we plan the test to confirm the margins that matter most. Then we correlate the model to the results, following ASME verification and validation practice. If the miss was ours, because something slipped through our QC review, we fix it. If the test uncovers a condition nobody knew about, we scope the change with you and update the roadmap. Either way, you get a clear answer and a path to a design that holds.
How are product development services priced?
We price product development services to the value they deliver, not the hours we log. Hourly billing rewards extra iterations, so the cheapest quote often becomes the most expensive project once tooling, rework, and field failures show up. Our incentive is to get the design right the first time. We engage by fit, not as a ladder. Gold (from $35K): you have one project and need help with it. Platinum (from $15K/mo): you have recurring work at a steady rhythm. Diamond (from $800K/yr): you have a long development program, often multi-year.
Gold is never required, and some clients start at Platinum or Diamond. These are starting points, not quotes; your roadmap sets the price. We price to the value we deliver, not the hours we log. If the value isn't there for you, we'll say so in the assessment. Our engineering consultant pricing page explains how each collection works in more detail.
Not sure where your program stands? Send it. Free roadmap.
Send your concept or current design. We review your project scope in a free assessment and reply within one business day with next steps.
On-site assessments that require travel are quoted separately.
