RDVS
By adopting a more strategic approach to product development, automotive consultancy RDVS has evolved its component production operation into a fast-growing and profitable business
Background
R&D Vehicle Systems (RDVS) was established in 2004 in Banbury to provide an electrical design consultancy and prototyping service to the automotive industry.
The company has successfully delivered consultancy projects varying in scope from military vehicle, niche sports car and race car electrical system designs to the design and supply of complete high and low voltage systems for electric cars. It provided the power, chassis and cockpit electrical systems for the JCB Dieselmax Land Speed Record Car which in 2006 broke the FIA Land Speed record for a diesel-powered vehicle with a record speed of 350.092mph.
In 2005, RDVS launched sister company R&D Vehicle Components to research, design and manufacture products for its customers. In its first 12 months in business, this company supplied more than 1,000 electronic components. It has since established itself as a leading supplier of components in the electric vehicle field.
Problem
RDVS wanted to evolve from providing consultancy services to developing components. Its aim was to use its consulting projects to target gaps in the components market where it could then develop new products.
In 2006, RDVS had an idea for a new product - a low voltage, high current modular power distribution system for vehicles - inspired by a customer the company was working with at the time. Previously, the business had developed products when requested by a customer. This was the first time RDVS identified a gap in the market and product to fill it without being asked to do so.
RDVS wanted to find a way of developing this product with a particular customer contributing to the cost. However, though a hi-tech, innovative business, RDVS lacked in-house marketing and product development expertise. It accessed Designing Demand's Innovate service for advice on how best to acquire it.
Response
Design Associate Chris Thompson was allocated to work with RDVS for a year. The starting point was to meet co-founder Rob Millar to analyse every aspect of the business. This helped the company in a variety of ways.
‘It was immediately clear than RDVS had been under-selling itself in terms of the rates it charged for consultancy services,’ Thompson says. ‘This was indicative of the modesty of the founders - two highly experienced electrical engineers who had an idea for a new product but, at the time we first met, no prototype or even drawings they could show their customer.’
The challenge was two-fold. While RDVS needed to persuade the customer to invest in developing the new product, it also needed to re-position itself if it was to grow its components development business.
‘Everyone knew RDVS as electrical engineers and they had great relationships within the industry, but they needed to be seen not just as consultants but credible product developers,’ he says.
To secure the funds to develop its product, RDVS needed to sell the idea before the product existed. Thompson worked with Millar to extend his single idea into an entire product range to make the proposition more appealing to the customer. The two also worked on strengthening RDVS' credentials, making it look bigger and more established in product production than it was at the time, and on creating a stronger platform for product development for other customers.
Over a couple of months, RDVS developed a family of 18 different iterations of the original product. It then put together a brochure in-house to detail every item in this range.
Despite RDVS' best efforts, the product did not go into production because a would-be investor cancelled a project relevant to its development. But the insight and experience Millar gained from Innovate subsequently transformed the business when, soon after, RDVS became involved in two electric vehicle-related projects on a consultancy basis - one for a major automotive manufacturer, and the other for a major automotive supplier.
RDVS identified a gap in the market for a High Voltage Power Distribution Unit (PDU) that acts, in effect, like a fusebox for an electric car's high voltage system and high voltage ancillaries.
The starting point was one of the products for which RDVS already had a paper design - a low voltage prototyping unit. It evolved this to provide a specific solution for the automotive manufacturer. Success here led to the design of a further, more complex unit. This, in turn, allowed RDVS to recruit an additional electronics engineer and develop more complex high voltage systems. It then pitched successfully for the design and supply of High Voltage PDUs for both the manufacturer and the supplier. The first of the two new electric vehicles containing these RDVS components were due to launch in late 2009.
‘We took what we had learned with Chris and replicated that approach - extending the product idea across a range, and producing a brochure detailing this before the product was made. It worked,’ Millar says.
‘Chris' work provided the kernel for the whole snowball RDVS has become. Now things have come full circle, and having built a substantial resource we are looking at developing our net range of products using the same approach.’
Impact
When RDVS accessed Innovate in 2006 it employed three staff and had an annual turnover of £280,000. Today, the business has a staff of 16 and turnover is £1.2m.
Participating in Designing Demand has helped fuel growth as it provided the business with a new approach to developing and presenting its new product ideas, Millar believes.
‘As a group of engineers setting up a hi-tech consulting business we knew about the technical parts of product development but not how best to sell the idea,’ Millar admits. ‘Designing Demand altered our internal approach to product development. And it has reinforced the strategic role marketing and design can play in a hi-tech business.’