Capital equipment and machinery
Short runs, high unit value and tooling amortised over few units. The project is decided in the bill of costs and in the choice between in-house manufacture and subcontracting.
Sectors
The method does not change. The dominant risk does.
The four phases apply the same way to every project, but the effort is not distributed evenly. Before we start we agree where the real risk in your development sits, and that is where the work concentrates.
How the weight of each phase shifts
Where the risk sits determines where the work goes.
In capital equipment, freedom to operate is usually clear and the project is decided on cost: short runs, high labour content and tooling depreciation spread across few units. Phase 03 takes half the effort.
In consumer products the opposite holds: unit cost is predictable and what is uncertain is demand and the gap in the market. There the weight falls on phase 01, because the field is saturated with registrations, and on phase 02, because without rotation data there is no way to size anything.
And in any product subject to standards, phase 04 stops being execution and becomes the bottleneck: the calendar is set by testing, not by the line.
Where we work
Sectors the methodology fits.
The list below reflects the kind of project this methodology is built for. If your sector is not on it, the useful question is not whether we know it, but whether your project turns on one of the four phases.
Packaging
A densely registered field, where freedom to operate is the first filter, and unit cost is highly sensitive to material, scrap and the format the line runs.
Durable consumer products
Demand rules. Rotation, channel and seasonality set the capacity, and the point-of-sale pilot is the figure everything else rests on.
Industrial components
A product sold to another manufacturer, with customer homologation and traceability requirements that shape the process from the design stage.
Professional equipment
Long purchase cycles and a technical decision split across several people. Phase 02 focuses on understanding who decides and on what basis.
Products subject to regulation
Where certification is a condition of sale, the testing calendar governs the production calendar and is planned from phase 01 onwards.
Note: This list describes the type of project the method is designed for. The sectors in which Honeycomb has executed specific engagements are discussed in a meeting, under non-disclosure agreement.
What they have in common
A physical product, made in series, with an investment decision behind it.
We do not work on software or services. We work on things that have to be manufactured, where there is tooling to commission, a unit cost to calculate and a capacity to size. If your project has those three, the methodology applies regardless of sector.
First consultation and NDA at no cost
Tell us where the project stands.
A thirty-minute conversation is enough to establish which phase your development enters at and what it would take to close it. We sign the non-disclosure agreement before you describe anything.