EAC Product Development Solutions is passionate about transforming our client’s ideas, needs and challenges into innovative, marketable products that support successful brands — That’s why we created our EAC Design & Engineering Services Team.
Our team consistently works with manufacturers, academic institutions, and engineering and design organizations throughout North America to solve all kinds of engineering challenges.
Finding, selecting, and trusting an outside engineering group is a tall order. We get it. There are a lot of questions people have as they vet potential partners. Here are answers to the top 10 questions people ask about our engineering services. We hope this helps.
1. What engineering services does EAC offer?
Our engineering services team provides mechanical engineering, product design, industrial design, proof of concept, IoT / Smart-Connected design & development, and analysis (FEA) services to help individuals and organizations realize their product ideas and get to market faster.
We are proud to say our engineering team can handle just about any engineering challenge thrown our way. Our complete engineering capabilities include CAD, detailed technical specification product requirements, design validation and optimization, IoT (Internet of Things), smart connected products, manufacturing, FEA (Finite Elements Analysis), simulation, analysis and more.
You can check out our Engineering Services Brochure for specifics on our design and engineering principles, services, manufacturing competencies, and our software competencies.
Still have questions about our engineering services and competencies? You can always send us a message here, and we will be more than happy to personally answer any inquiries you might have.
2. What is the EAC engineering services background?
This is a question we get asked a lot.
We have offered our engineering services for over 21 years and counting. Throughout the course of these years, we have completed over 400 engineering service projects on time and under budget!
It is important to us that you know our engineering services team leverages years of experience and extensive knowledge of industry standards and tools to deliver manufacturable, innovative designs. This is a distinguishing and highly valued characteristic of our company.
3. What is the EAC engineering services project process?
If you have an idea or a project request, our engineering services team will work with you initially at no cost to further scope out your vision. We do this to ensure we have all your proper project requirements and to figure out two things: 1) What you are looking to do and 2) If we are a good fit.
Once we fully understand your engineering project we build out a statement of work. Our statement of work outlines our plan and what we are going to do.
After our statement of work is defined, the team carries out the project delivery under the watchful eye of your dedicated project manager.
Throughout the duration of the project, our team will keep you updated with the daily or weekly status updates. The frequency of the updates is entirely up to you.
No matter the size and the duration of your project, we still use the same project management process for every engineering service project we complete.
4. What are the professional engineering costs?
Our professional engineering costs generally do not vary, but the amount of work we do for customers varies according to the goal. (Keep an eye out for another blog that will dive into this with more detail)
Our engineering team considers the type of project you are looking to complete, the work you need to be done, your project size, your project timeline, and much more.
Because our fees and rates fluctuate due to so many factors, we offer a Free Project Scope to address your specific engineering needs and requirements. This way you can be assured you will get the most accurate engineering project quote. We’re not trying to play our cards close to our chest. We’d legitimately like to talk through your project and provide the best, most accurate quote possible. No strings attached.
5. What similar engineering projects has EAC worked on in the past?
With over 400 engineering projects completed on time and under budget, we have a plethora of project examples to demonstrate our expertise. We’ve worked on everything from consumer products to industrial equipment. We’ve optimized designs for traditional manufacturing, various molding methods, and IoT requirements.
For example, see how our Engineering Services team helped Condux International (Case Study) and Core Distribution (Case Study).
You might also check out how our engineering services team helped Milestone AV Technologies complete a critical project 40% faster.
6. What happens to the intellectual property of my engineering project?
The intellectual property of the engineering services project EAC completes for you is entirely yours. We call this out in our statement of work.
You can think of our engineering services team as your contracted in-house engineers. The rights to everything we do are completely owned by you. If we create something for you, it is entirely owned by you.
At the end of your engineering project we gladly turn over anything and everything we used to create and solve your engineering needs.
7. Can EAC help with fabrication or fabrication partners?
Although we don’t have specific fabrication partners, we are able to help you find companies that can fabricate and produce products for you. Over the years we’ve built a long list of trusted manufacturers.
Whether you are looking for an initial prototype run, a full production run, building only a few products, or you need help transitioning and optimizing your current design for full production—we can help.
Our engineering services team is more than happy to assist you in the process, as well as guide any conversation with the production facility. If you would like our expertise, we’re happy to help.
8. Can the EAC engineers work on-site with our engineering staff?
Our EAC engineering services team can work on-site, but we do have some geographical limitations. Contact us to see if having our EAC engineering services onsite could be an option for you.
9. How many resources can EAC devote to my engineering project?
We have a staff of highly trained and educated engineers, but we are not limited to just that. The resources assigned to any specific project depend on the timelines and tasks defined in the statement of work.
If your engineering project requires additional resources and contractors our team is well equipped (and networked) to work with and manage additional help to complete your project.
10. Does the EAC engineering services team have any references?
Of course. Here are just a few examples of what our customers have had to say about our engineering services:
“EAC was able to decrease the overall weight by nearly half. They did a nice job coming up with innovative solutions to reduce the amount of machining required by the hanging fixture.”
- -Josh Siebert, Engineering Manager, Condux International
“We needed 3D modeling expertise and experience in getting a design to manufacture stage. EAC looked at the mechanics of our product in detail and produced a well-optimized design and high quality drawings.”
- – Eric Wahl, Owner, Colorado Solar Inc.
“The most valuable part of partnering with EAC goes back to having faith very early on that the technical rigor and detail was being addressed. I was assured that the EAC team was going to do the diligence necessary to create a good design because of this.”
– Mike Ardito, Director of Product Development, Milestone AV Technologies
To view other EAC customer testimonials you can always scroll to the bottom of our Design & Engineering Page.
Beyond the typical questions we get asked about our engineering services, we thought it might be beneficial for you to learn the benefits of out outsourcing your projects and how hiring outside engineering help can shorten your time-to-market and give you a competitive edge.
Furthermore, don’t hesitate to contact us about Design & Engineering Services questions.
What if a bartender knew exactly when one of their kegs was about to tap out just by looking at a volume meter on an app on their phones? Their bar back could switch out the keg before impatient patrons demand more. What if liquor shelves had weight sensors that measured when someone adds or removes liquor? Or an app on a phone existed that notified management when and what liquor is moved? Or better yet, a storage system that communicates with the front bar, knows which liquor is being moved, and manages inventory according to actual usage? Inventory would be a lot more accurate and there would be less time spent trying to figure out what needs to be in the next order.
When smart connectivity allows for a smoother restaurant or brewery experience, you’re most likely going to have a better time without realizing it had anything to do with the Internet of Things (IoT). For businesses, IoT solutions are creating more opportunities to connect products with the Internet. And for the average consumer, IoT solutions are creating easier access and control of products through smartphones, tablets, and desktops.
Leaders are investing in an IoT strategy as they plan the future success of their products and services. You can add smart connectivity to your products – even if you’re in the beer industry.
Here are a few industry leaders that leverage the Internet of Things to drive their success.
Deschutes Brewery
Headquartered in Bend, Oregon, Deschutes Brewery has been making craft beer since 1988. You may be familiar with their rich porter Black Butte created with hints of chocolate and coffee or their Fresh Squeezed IPA brimming with grapefruit enriched hops.
The Deschutes team partnered up with a consultant group and Microsoft last year in efforts to improve their brewing process. With a total of nine brewing phases, each phase has to be closely watched to maintain the quality of their beer. Machine learning is the application of artificial intelligence that provides systems the ability to automatically learn and improve from experience without being programmed. Deschutes has implemented machine learning and predictive analysis to automate and improve their fermentation processes. When pairing IoT sensors with the Cortana Intelligence Suite, Microsoft’s predictive learning software, the analytics tool determines the percentage of beer fermented in each batch and predicts when it’s time to switch to the next phase. The Deschutes team can now accurately schedule the nine brewing phases accordingly to ensure the quality of beer is consistent with all of their batches.
Connecting the beer tank sensors with machine learning gave Deschutes an IoT solution and allowed them to improve their brew processes. Deschutes reduced their fermentation process by 24-48 hours. They are now able to focus more time on creating new brands and maintaining the quality of the existing ones. Deschutes is looking at furthering the use of this smart, connected technology by looking into using it for preventive maintenance for their equipment so that brewers would be alerted if parts are due for service or replacement.
Buffalo Wild Wings
Buffalo Wild Wings, headquartered in Minneapolis, MN, is a popular sports bar that has an average of 24-32 beers on tap. Due to major growth of the company and being one of the top 10 fastest-growing restaurants in the U.S., BWW needed to keep up with the growing demand of their customer’s needs. The company faced two major challenges. Both challenges prompted the need to leverage technology and the Internet of Things for an improved operational efficiency.
The first challenge was that they needed to eliminate the product loss that results from comping drinks, excessive or bad pours, and generous bartenders that give beer away without entering the sale in the system. BWW implemented a system called BeerBoard that monitors beer flow data from IoT sensors in the taps to Mulesoft, an Enterprise Service Bus (ESB), where managers can compare beer output to sales information pulled from their Aloha point-of-sale systems. Restaurant managers can accurately determine whether they are running an effective beer operation with the help of the IoT solution found from linking the sensors to BWWs data management systems.
Their second challenge was managing the demand of the assortment of beers for each location all year round. BWW used BeerBoard’s new SmartBar beer management platform to switch and assign new beers corresponding to tap lines. Pour data and sales data would be captured through the platform where all BWW restaurants would have access to the reports to measure performance of each beer. The ability to gain beer preference insight brought a powerful competitive advantage to Buffalo Wild Wing’s brand and reputation.
By working with a few different companies that provided the IoT flow sensors and a software solution to manage their data, BWW started to accurately predict preferences and optimize inventory planning. The company now leverages the Internet of Things to accurately track beer consumption.
How to Bring Your Products to Life with the IoT
Race up the learning curve and find a partner that’s driven to find and implement the right IoT solution for your unique business. Make sure they have the engineering expertise necessary to bring your products to life. EAC Product Development Solutions is a company that transforms the way companies design, manufacture, connect to, and service their products. EAC is on a mission to help companies innovate, optimize, and win in the marketplace by selecting the right IoT solution — like PTC ThingWorx. With ThingWorx allows organizations to connect their products to the Internet and give customers the tools they need for easy access and control.
Ready to dive in? Our team of specialists, engineers, and developers would love to help you bring a working proof of concept to life. The demo application image below is an example of how our engineers can use ThingWorx to pull together data from many sources and deliver data to your fingertips. The demo shows how a local brewery can use the app to access plant conditions, truck tracking, order tracking, weather forecasting, collaboration, and beer tasting — all in real-time simulation.
Watch our Connect Services video to see how our engineers can connect your products with the Internet of Things!
Knowledge is power. Keep track of your data if you’re not doing it already. You’re bound to learn something from it. Better yet – apply smart connectivity to your process. Contact our Design and Engineering Services at EAC Product Development Solutions to realize your product potential and to find your IoT solution.
Download our free Connect Services Brochure to see how you connect your products to the internet for a smarter technology solution.
I applaud anyone currently considering how the Internet of Things (IoT) can transform their company and their approach to competition. This is what every industrial and consumer product company should be doing right now. While helping companies through the early stages of developing IoT strategies we’ve recognized a common challenge. Teams can get lost in the excitement of enabling their first “thing” and lose focus on their long-term vision and the value they can extract from streaming data. We get it! The IoT is exciting. That is why we always coach our clients to select an IoT platform (software) that allows them to quickly and easily develop applications that present valuable, digestible information to employees and customers – whether or not a role or data stream was part of the initial strategy.
This week provided me with a front row seat to unexpected value from streaming data. While working on an IoT proof of concept for a client, my team was able to refine a data stream and deliver a new application to an audience that was not part of the initial scope of the project. The only reason we were able to create this new application without charging an additional fee is because we selected ThingWorx, a solution by PTC as the application/mashup development tool. Thingworx helps teams create new applications in minutes.
I try to spend the majority of my time working on IoT strategies and how they can transform companies and competition. My background in engineering and software development provides me with a unique view into the time spent making things smart — providing sensor networks, communication layers, and ultimately enabling heretofore unseen analytics in real-time on remote products. The project the Connect Services team and I were working on this week involved developing mashups, which stemmed from earlier strategy work and team alignment. Mashups are the collection and presentation of data from smart things and systems enabling real-time business awareness and decision-making. For this project, we had already developed storyboards for the apps that would enable core product and service differentiation. Everyone was on board and excited.
Once the proof of concept device was wired and streaming data, we saw a whole new role that would benefit from the data that was streaming. Previously, the engineers would have been left hanging and the data would have been left alone and isolated. This is because developing an extra application for ancillary roles would have taken the project well off track. Leveraging ThingWorx as our application development environment, we were able to build a concept from scratch in literally seconds. What’s really cool is that it didn’t take any code at all either, just drag, drop, save, and we were in business. The concept made sense and in literally a couple of hours (not days or weeks) we had created an entirely new app and use case for the data. We were able to refine the data in real-time and create a whole new monitoring experience. Again, this was done without coding, just simply drag and drop.
So, here’s my recommendation — make sure your IoT platform supports your IoT strategy. And what’s more, be sure the platform you select is a tool that is flexible, fast, and fun — like ThingWorx. You will likely find more and more ways to consume, refine, and benefit from the data your connected products and enterprise produce just because it’s easy to do. And this, after all, is what your IoT platform should do — it should enable your existing business initiatives and accelerate your business initiatives.
EAC Connect Services is here to help you develop your IoT strategy, build and connect your proof of concept, and select the appropriate platform. Let us be your partner in the ever-changing world of the IoT. Please let us know if we can help you transform your business and help you beat your competition.
