The Challenges
An industrial controls company had entrusted their entire product portfolio 20 years ago to a Chinese-based supplier. This included having the supplier develop designs, drawings, models, BOM’s, schematics, tools, test protocols, and test/assembly fixtures. This approach worked very well until 2021 when they made the decision to re-shore their product line due to tariff, transit costs, and transit times dramatically increasing. When the company approached the supplier for access to the technical information, they were informed the information belonged to the supplier; not the company. In other words, the company had lost control of their intellectual property and was unable to easily re-source the product line to another contract manufacturing supplier.
The Solutions
When approached by the industrial controls company, Eastek first deployed its design services team to evaluate the product portfolio and determine if and how the products could be reverse engineered to the company’s specifications. Eastek quoted a two-phased approach; Phase 1 entailed the complete re-design of the company’s portfolio which included schematics, 2D drawings, 3D models, BOM’s, tools/fixtures and material supply chain. At this point, the customer could have taken the completed design package to any contract manufacturer to quote Phase 2, which was the production quote.
The Results
Eastek was awarded both phases of the project and over the next 24 months designed and launched the company’s product portfolio. Most importantly to the customer, all the design work created by Eastek’s design services team is the intellectual property of the company. They now have total control of their IP.
“Without Eastek, I’m not sure how we would have continued forward. Not only were we able to continue future generations of our product, but we now have our IP back in our hands and under our control.”
Vice President of Engineering