PIVOT INTERNATIONAL BLOG

READ THE LATEST FROM OUR BLOG

Thank you for visiting the Pivot International blog. We are a collaborative product development, design, and manufacturing firm serving clients around the world. For more information about our services, please call us at 1-877-206-5001. We look forward to working with you.


 

How to Take Your Product Into Manufacturing

Posted: January 3, 2023 If you’re a startup, or you’re just getting ready to release your company’s first product, the manufacturing process can seem overwhelming. The entire process of new product development (NPD) can be difficult to get right the first time. At Pivot International, we have over 50 years of experience bringing products into manufacturing. With our global supply chain and manufacturing facilities spanning three continents, we truly are experts in this field. With our one-source business model and proven design for manufacturing (DFM) expertise, let us help you take the stress out of bringing your product to market.

Smart Homes: Connecting Our World, One Development At A Time

Posted: December 27, 2022 Smart homes have been a hot topic in the tech world for a while now, and it's no wonder why. The idea of being able to control and automate various aspects of your home using just your smartphone or voice commands is incredibly appealing to many people. But what exactly is a smart home, and what are the benefits of having one?

Minimum Viable Products – The Missing Key to the Success of your New Product Development

Posted: December 20, 2022 A minimum viable product, or MVP, is a concept that has gained popularity in the startup world as a way to quickly test the viability of a product or service. An MVP is a stripped-down version of a product that has only the essential features necessary to test its marketability. The goal of an MVP is to gather data and feedback from potential customers, so a company can make informed decisions about how to proceed with development.

Mapping Your Supply Chain is Critical to Protecting Your Business

Posted: December 13, 2022 As of this writing, a report from Bloomberg indicates that Apple is continuing to diversify its supply chain by announcing plans to source chips from the Arizona-based Taiwan Semiconductor plant that is expected to be operational in 2024. And while this announcement isn’t surprising given the cross-industry redoubling of efforts to build more resilient supply chains, it’s a testament to just how much work still needs to be done and how challenging it can be. At Pivot International, we are one-source product development and supply chain leader that has successfully seen our partners through geopolitical, climatic, and pandemic-driven disruption for over fifty years. With access to a global supply network, 320,000 square feet of tri-continental manufacturing space, and top DFM talent, we provide sourcing alternatives and innovative engineering hacks that help companies break through short- and long-term barriers to successful product launch.

Highlights, Insights, and Market Opportunities for the Construction Industry in 2023

Posted: November 30, 2022 2023 is just around the corner, and builders are contending with an uncertain economic forecast in the year ahead. But for all the unanswered questions, 2023 construction industry trend lines are rapidly becoming more clearly defined. At Pivot International, we are a global, one-source leader in product design, engineering, manufacturing, and supply chain management. Our extensive suite of digital technologies and world-class DFM talent delivers smart construction solutions to help companies capture value from the latest industry development and trends using the latest IoT applications. In this piece, we'll explore insights drawn from the CBRE's 2023 US Construction Costs Trends Report to help industry players prepare for the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead.

Five Research-Backed Reasons Why High Design Aesthetics Give Product Developers a Competitive Edge

Posted: November 9, 2022 The aesthetics of a product's design plays a crucial role in its success. Research shows that aesthetics significantly influence buyers' first impressions of a product. Long before learning the price of a product, buyers form price expectations based strictly on visual cues provided by extrinsic product attributes and design aesthetics. The visual impression a product makes on a buyer is far from a superficial affair. As this piece will show, companies looking to launch successful products must be aware of the competitive advantage conferred by products that are as aesthetically pleasing as they are functional.

The War in Ukraine, America’s Industrial Base, and the Future of Cyber Security — What Companies Need to Know

Posted: November 2, 2022 The war in Ukraine has sparked new debates about the cyber security of America's industrial base. Few people are more qualified to weigh in on the subject than Josh Steinman, Senior Cyber Policymaker under the Trump administration and now head of Galvanick, a startup revolutionizing the security of industrial control systems. In this piece, we'll provide an executive summary of some of Steinman's latest thinking to help American companies in the industrial sector better grasp the evolving cybersecurity landscape and what it may mean for their businesses and the broader industrial base.

How to Cut Prototyping Costs and Leverage Builds With Users, Investors, and Decision-Makers

Posted: October 26, 2022 Contemporary best practices for NPD (new product development) include iterative prototyping, and no complex product makes it to market without multiple rounds of this activity. But many companies lack a conceptual framework for understanding the wider implications of the prototyping process. For this reason, they often unwittingly leave value on the table while accruing unnecessary and excessive costs.

Launching a Wireless B2B Innovation Poses Complex Risks. Here’s How to Mitigate Them

Posted: October 12, 2022 As the digital age reaches a crescendo, companies looking to launch wireless B2B innovations face twin hurdles. The first concerns the product itself and its acceptance by stakeholders, investors, and end-users, all of which have traditionally been the primary focus of NPD (new product development). The second is the seamless integration of the product into the broader ecosystem. In this piece, we’ll highlight why the success of a product depends as much on the second hurdle as the first, presenting a single strategy for successfully clearing both.

Think Smaller: How Regional Strategies Can Drive Global Growth

Posted: October 5, 2022 With so much cross-industry emphasis placed on the challenges of globalism, the role of regionalism in business strategy often receives scant attention. But even global companies — and those that aspire to become such — are well-served to examine the advantages of a regional approach to growth. Why? Because as past Toyota Vice Chairman Fujio Cho once explained, "We intend to continue moving forward with globalization…by further enhancing the localization and independence of our operations in each region." Cho's insight underscores the paradox that global or country-focused growth depends on robust regional strategies. It also highlights the extent and persistence of regionalization in economic activity and its vital role in a company's business model and broader strategy.