Client names are withheld under NDA. Everything else is as it happened: the brief we received, what we changed, what it cost in tooling and testing, and what it proves about the way we work. If a project is still open, we say so.<\/p>\n
None of these are catalogue orders. All three started with a document like the ones on our custom development page<\/a>.<\/p>\n CASE 01 \u00b7 MATERIAL SUBSTITUTION \u00b7 EUROPE \/ NORTH AMERICA<\/p>\n The brief.<\/strong> Take an existing ODM 12-cup drip platform \u2014 chassis, electronics, carafe, warming circuit \u2014 and change only the hot water contact path: riser tube, brew showerhead, filter basket and carafe lid in 304 stainless. Initial order above 1,000 units, lifetime quantity above 50,000. The buyer offered to pay for every stamping die, every drawing and the full certification programme up front, and asked for a prototype gate before any production order.<\/p>\n What actually had to change.<\/strong> Four parts sounds like a material swap and is not. The riser tube needed new fittings at both ends because a stainless tube does not compress like the original plastic one; the showerhead had to keep its spray pattern or brew time moves and the coffee tastes different; the filter basket had to match the existing carrier or the whole platform is invalidated; and the carafe lid had to keep the glass rim geometry while the internal hinge mechanism stayed untouched. Polishing and passivation of the food-contact surfaces is a separate process step, not a detail.<\/p>\n Where the money goes.<\/strong> The stainless material is not the expensive part. The expensive part is the deep-draw set for the basket, the bending and welding fixtures for the tube, and the re-testing that follows any change in a food-contact material. This is why we quote tooling separately and do not bury it in the unit price.<\/p>\n What it proves.<\/strong> We can work on a platform we did not design, keep the parts that work, and take responsibility for the parts that change \u2014 with the buyer owning the tooling and the certificate.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n CASE 02 \u00b7 NEW PRODUCT \u00b7 GERMANY<\/p>\n The brief.<\/strong> A product developer in Germany arrived with a two-page mechanism description: a round body around 68 mm diameter by 148 mm tall, a powered metal grinding mechanism with reverse, overload stop and a lid interlock, a separate catch chamber with a closable pouring outlet, a removable raw-material insert targeting 1.5\u20132 g, and compartments for loose papers and tips. No production-ready CAD. Motor, tooth geometry, control board and final dimensions left to engineering. First step: one working prototype, with any batch of 1,000 or 2,000 strictly conditional on written approval.<\/p>\n What we told them, honestly.<\/strong> The housing, battery, PCBA and assembly are inside our competence. A grinding mechanism is a separate discipline \u2014 tooth geometry, torque under load, stall behaviour and burr life. Quoting a prototype price without a proven platform would either be too high to be credible or too low to be safe. We proposed a paid feasibility review first, and an introduction to a grinder specialist if they preferred to keep it at no cost.<\/p>\n Why this case is here.<\/strong> Because saying no to the wrong part of a project is the service. A supplier who quotes everything is telling you they have not read your brief.<\/p>\n What it proves.<\/strong> We will name the boundary of our capability before you spend money on tooling.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n CASE 03 \u00b7 PLATFORM REUSE \u00b7 MULTI-MARKET<\/p>\n The brief.<\/strong> A distributor wanted to cover three price points \u2014 entry black, premium matte and white for colour programmes \u2014 without carrying three sets of spare parts or three sets of certificates.<\/p>\n What we did.<\/strong> One motor, one SUS 304 shaft and bell, one bayonet coupling, one carton footprint. The differentiation is housing finish, trim and controls: gloss black with chrome, textured matte with a two-button panel, ribbed white with a DC motor, plus a 10-in-1 variant that adds nine attachments to the same base. A buyer can then place one purchase order and get three shelf positions out of a single platform.<\/p>\n The commercial logic.<\/strong> Fewer article numbers, one spare-parts list, one test programme, faster shelf turnover. The trade-off is that every finish has to hold the same tolerances on the housing, because they share the same mould base \u2014 which is also why a colour change normally does not trigger re-certification.<\/p>\n What it proves.<\/strong> Platform thinking is cheaper than product thinking, and we build for it from the start.<\/p>\n<\/div>\nA 12-cup drip coffee maker with no plastic in the hot water path<\/h2>\n
A 68 \u00d7 148 mm rechargeable grinder with five compartments<\/h2>\n
One 500 W platform, three shelf positions, seven models<\/h2>\n
The four things all three projects had in common<\/h2>\n