Inventors Consider Manufacturing Issues Early

{Don Debelak’s new book, Turning Your Invention into Cash is now available on Amazon for $3.49. Go to Amazon.com and enter inventions Don Debelak to purchase. From the author of Entrepreneur Magazine’s Bringing Your Product to Market.}

Inventor Story: Art Fry

Art Fry, a 3M employee, was singing in his church choir when he came up with his world famous invention: the Post-It Note.  Under Fry’s direction, 3M developed and manufactured Post-It Notes.  We have not yet discussed an invention that was developed by or in a corporation, but I think Fry’s story is a good one for all inventors to learn from.

Fry was looking for a bookmark that would not fall out of his church hymnal in between Wednesday night practice and Sunday morning.  He thought an adhesive bookmark strong enough to hold its place but weak enough not to tear the pages when it was removed was the ideal solution.  Luckily, he remembered that six years previous someone at 3M had developed an adhesive in the form of microscopic balls.  Depending on the density of the balls, the amount of adhesion would vary.  If he could find the right density, a fairly simple undertaking, he would succeed.

Little did Fry know that the difficulty with the Post-It Notes would be in how to manufacture them.  He spent the next six years creating equipment to make the notes commercially.  By 1980 Post-It Notes started selling and have been a huge success.

So what can we learn from Fry?  I think the most important lesson is the importance of manufacturing.  Many inventors don’t think much of manufacturing, or they start to think about it pretty late.  But, as we have seen in Fry’s example, manufacturing can be a huge problem to tackle for new products.  I have been involved in a venture with a new product where all of the manufacturing had to be invented or improvised.  It has been a long and difficult road.  So what, should we not even try?  No, of course not.  What I suggest is take manufacturing into account as you design the product, or at least its final design.  Instead of only thinking about what would be best for the product, think about the best way to make this product that is also easy to manufacture.  If you need to invent any manufacturing processes you will be doing twice the inventing work.  This may be worth your while, as it was with Post-It Notes, but it may not be.  Try to find someone who you can talk with about manufacturing as you are designing your idea.  He or she may have many ideas to help you decide how to proceed with your product.

Do you need web content?  Don Debelak, who has written 15 books published by major publishers such as McGraw Hill and Entrepreneur Press is currently writing web content.  Check out more information at:

http://onestopinventionshop.net/web-content-writing-services

 Don Debelak offers affordable patent work. Check out http://patentsbydondebelak.com/