In assessing the state of product development today, Protolabs determined that speed is of the essence.
In a survey of more than 700 engineers, designers and product developers, the digital manufacturing service discovered that 53% of those polled said they are developing products faster than ever, but more than 80% reported they are looking for ways to be even faster. The driving force of product development, said 65%, is competition.
As they looked back, 70% of respondents reported that material shortages had a significant effect on meeting late prototyping goals during the past year. However, only 33% predicted they would do so over the next five years. In a similar vein, 74% of respondents reported that supply chain disruption had affected ongoing production in the last year, while only 44% predicted it would have an impact over the next five years.
Still, respondents expected the state of the economy to remain a challenge over the next five years, especially during late product development stages, with 61% and 64% saying int would be an issue for late prototyping and ongoing production, respectively.
Factors affecting how long product development efforts would be, according to Protolab’s respondents:
- Rising customer demands, cited by 78%
- Labor and workforce issues, including labor shortages and skills gaps, cited by 65%,
- Environmental goals/sustainability, cited by 37%
Only 37% of respondents expected artificial intelligence to affect future development time.
