3.5 Communication Aspects – the Role of Prototyping

3.5.1 Prototyping – an Introduction

In engineering, a prototype is a pre-production version of a manufactured product such as a component, sub-assembly, or system. The purpose of building a prototype is to prove design and manufacturing aspects as early as possible before resources are committed to full-scale production. A number of questions are evaluated during prototyping, including:

• Is the product actually feasible? In other words, are problems present that are fundamentally impossible to overcome?
• Are there unforeseen high-risk technical and cost aspects?
• Are the design and build correct? That is, has the correct product been built (validation), and has the product been built correctly (verification)?
• Can it be built in a manufacturing environment (as opposed to the hand-crafting methods of the prototyping phase)?
• Can it be built for the right price?

Once this phase is completed...