Let’s Learn About Proof of Concept Experiments
Your product is amazing and you want to make it even better! (Or it currently doesn’t even work but you know it can be great so you’re trying desperately to improve it…) Either way, you know that experiments can help you determine which things in your manufacturing process actually... Read More...
Let’s Talk About Multifactor Experiments
You know that experiments are important for making good decisions in your Maker business. You know that experiments need to test one factor at a time in order to give you useful information. You know that you need to use a large enough sample size and only think... Read More...
Probability: an easy explanation for busy business owners.
You’re designing an experiment for your business. And you know that step 1 is to separate out the variables you want to test. You know that if you try to change more than one thing at a time, you won’t actually find out which one(s) affected your product and... Read More...
Experimental Design for Makers
You want to do an experiment to inform your decisions in your Maker or small-scale manufacturing business. (If you don’t? Read the last article to learn why experiments can help you optimize your manufacturing process.) Rhonda was convinced. If you’re a regular PCat reader, you know that Rhonda is... Read More...
How (and why) to do an experiment
You don’t care about experiments. You’re a maker (or inventor, creator, entrepreneur, or however you describe yourself.) If you wanted to be a lab scientist, you’d be one. You just want to make high-quality products and sell them to your delighted customers while making a good profit. Yes that’s... Read More...
First Principles Part Three
If you’ve been following along, you know that there are some things called First Principles. These are laws of nature, just like the familiar law of gravity, but they govern the way that heat and other forms of energy work in our universe. If you’ve been following along you... Read More...
Let’s talk about First Principles
You’re excited about your idea for a new product! Now you want to run it through some quick screens to make sure it’s at least not violating any First Principles before you move on to the Prototyping and Testing phases. Don’t know what any of these things are? You... Read More...
First Principles – First Law
You’ve got a great idea for a new product. You’ve sketched out designs. You’ve talked to potential customers and people are SUPER excited about buying it. All that’s left is to make it, right? Not so fast. If you read our recent series on design thinking you know that... Read More...
A New Process: Homemade Paint Mask!
If you’ve been following along with the story of the Process Cat Desk Buddy, you know that we went from cartoon to a 3D figure modelled in software, to a 3D-printed prototype, to a resin-casted figurine. That’s pretty cool in itself. Now for the next step we developed a... Read More...
Resin Casting the Process Cat Desk Buddy!
A Manufacturing Case Study This is a case study for the process of moving from the design phase of a manufacturing project, through the prototyping and on to the small-scale production method known as resin casting. If you read part 1 of the case study you know that I... Read More...
THE ZATTATAT CAST:
Meet the characters with the skills & Zattatudes who can help engineer your manufacturing success
Princess Capybara
Age: 35
Background: Biotech
Current Gig: Mold-Making
Zattatude: Seeks to geek out with the top tech she knows best
Gary
Age: 44
Background: Accounting
Current Gig: Baking
Zattatude: Lives to figure out how everything in life adds up
Process Cat
Age: Timeless
Background: Manufacturing
Current Gig: Helping People
Zattatude: Loves to teach others how to scale up their businesses
Rhonda
Age: 53
Background: Nursing
Current Gig: Woodworking
Zattatude: Celebrates ditching her bureaucratic hospital job for her hands-on craft business