Model Builders Inc Blog

Prototype models can make your product more successful at any stage of its life cycle. A prototype is a preliminary design or scale model representation of the final product. It allows your team and your customers to understand the product. You can take it to photo shoots, trade shows, or the customer's site. Below is a look at four of the advantages of using prototypes.

Preview the Final Product:

A prototype model can be an early representation of the final product, done to exact dimensions or to a larger or smaller scale. In addition, the prototype may be cutaway to showcase the internal components or have mechanical movement that demonstrates the operations of the product.

Prototypes are particularly important since they give a general picture of products that are still in development, and whose requirements are not entirely known. Until you can see and touch the prototype you often don't discover what works and what doesn't. Is it too big or too small? Will it actually work and if so how well? Do people like the look of the product in three dimensions? Can it be manufactured at an affordable cost?

A prototype enables all parties to visualize the product quickly and communicate what insights they have for the final product. You can find out if the prototype meets the requirements of potential users and then make changes before the final product is ready for production. The prototype is also the focal point for discussion with the design and engineering team.  The final product is a result of the fusion of design, marketing and engineering input as well as potential user interaction with a prototype.

       The first prototype at 2 times scale used to build demand at a tradeshow

Reduce the Cost of Development and Production:

Using a prototype model enables you to demonstrate the concept of your product and discover any flaws. You have the opportunity to correct these flaws, or come up with solutions for improving the product. This reduces the risk of your product failing. Hence, the cost of development and production is drastically reduced because you don't have to fix problems later after the final product is already in production.

Reduce the Time Needed for Product Development:

Once you have a prototype of your product, you are able to see it completely in 3D. The system requirements are defined as much as possible during the prototype process which is early in the product development. You are able to have a better idea of what the final product will look like, as well as its strengths and weaknesses. This knowledge enables you to accelerate the product development because using the prototype can get you feedback from all parties at the beginning of the product development cycle.

Many firms still are bouncing new product development back and forth between the finance, marketing, sales, and production departments, etc. without using a prototype to get input from all relevant departments early in the product development cycle. This bouncing around among departments results in a longer product development cycle.

Increase User Participation in Product Development:

When you create a prototype of your product, consumers get the opportunity to study it and give suggestions or observations. Users can test the functionality of the product and give feedback. In this way, consumers have the opportunity to help you improve your product. In addition, you can develop a product that is more appealing to consumers since you will be using their direct input.

Usually a new product is developed with a series of prototype models that are reviewed and improved by those who will be involved with the design, marketing & manufacture of the product and potential users. This normally increases the odds of success for the product in the marketplace.

A plant layout model is used as a design tool for arranging machinery, equipment, tool rooms, and the like in the best place to permit the quickest and smoothest production at the least cost. Plant layout models yield savings in construction and training, and they allow people with diverse expertise to collaborate on improvements.

Many engineering/construction companies and their clients use plant layout models to optimize the design and construction of complex plants like an industrial manufacturing facility, a chemical plant, a pharmaceutical plant, an oil refinery (like the one shown below), a food processing plant, or a nuclear plant. For these types of companies a plant layout model often encompasses a series of buildings, tanks, major equipment, and pipes on the site. The model may also have the roof removed from each building to display the machinery, equipment, and work flow inside.

                                       ARAMCO oil refinery

Many manufacturing companies use physical models to plan and optimize the design when adding to an existing facility or modifying the current production layout. In this case plant layout usually refers to the floor layout of machinery, equipment, the shipping department, and the like in one building. Shown below is a pharmaceutical plant model that can be moved to a new location as a single unit. 

This model is built to an exact scale to show piping, fittings, valves, equipment, structures, instrumention and other features that clarify the design. This means that:

• If there is a mistake in the drawings it will show up in this model, which is much less expensive to fix now before construction begins. The savings from preventing field changes often more than pay for the  model. Especially when there is a maze of piping, a plant layout model eliminates all of the interference problems at the design level.
• The model can be used as a focal point for planning meetings to visualize how all the elements are interrelated while the plant is under construction and as a training aid once the plant is completed.
• When subcontract bidders can better visualize interrelationships by reviewing a plant layout model, their bids are lower.

The first real engineering process design model was fabricated in 1951 with all of the equipment, piping, and vessels in exact scale. However, building the model was time-consuming since many parts had to be hand formed.  By the 1960's many of the parts needed for plant layout and process models (as well as many parts for architectural models) were being produced as precision-injected plastic molded parts available off the shelf in quantity and in a variety of scales.  This greatly cut the time and cost of fabricating a plant layout model.

The planning and construction savings from using plant layout models as a design tool and the reduced cost of labor and materials to make the model with standardized parts and other modern methods are so great that almost every new plant has been designed with the aid of a plant layout model for several decades.

The approach to layout modeling varies by industry, location and plant. If you would like to have a plant layout model made to facilitate your next design, be sure to work with a model company that has built plant layout models, can show you the results, and is sensitive to your unique requirements. We can do that! Take the next step by contacting us at Model Builders, Inc., 773-586-6500 or info@modelbuilders.net .