The business of rapid prototyping

Rapid prototypes will gain acceptance in business only to the extent that they provide bottom-line business value. Thus, this paper guides engineers wishing to “sell” rapid prototyping in helping them to operate from a business perspective. Presuming that the relative value of rapid prototypes is in their speed, I show how to identify, quantify and exploit timesaving opportunities by using rapid prototypes to greatly shorten product development cycles. The article first illustrates how to calculate the cost of delay for a development project so that we have a means of measuring the business value of the time saved. Then I show where to look for leveraged time-savings that will yield greater benefit than just the time saved directly in building the prototype faster. By addressing associated process and cultural change issues, the paper guides the rapid prototyper in setting up an environment in which the identified business advantage will actually be realized after the new system is installed.