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Full Turnkey: What Does That Actually Mean?

August 20, 2020
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The terms “turnkey” and “full-service” get tossed around a lot in our industry these days. But what do those terms really mean? The simplest way to define those terms is the ability to take a product from a rough concept to a finished good ready to be distributed to the consumer market. We dive into the many stages of what it means to provide turnkey services below.

Concept

A prospect comes to you with an idea for a new product. They have a good idea of what they want the product to be (i.e. the look, feel, and purpose), but they need some help turning that idea into a tangible product.

Design

After you’ve discussed the product idea and have a firm grasp of what your prospect is looking to create, it’s time to really get to work. The design stage is where the concept starts to turn into something more tangible. Combined with your prospect’s vision and ingenuity, your industry experience and expertise allow you to provide suggestions that will help bring the product to life in the most cost-efficient and timely manner, all the while ensuring that the end product will be of the highest quality.

Providing the prospect with various packaging, bottle, cap, label, formula etc. samples during the design stage is a must. Explaining the cost and lead time implications of each sample is necessary to make sure that your prospect is getting the full picture of the product development process.

Material Sourcing

Your prospect is no longer a prospect at this stage; they’ve become a qualified client. From the various samples that you’ve provided, final component decisions have been made and production is on the horizon. The time has come to start planning production, and sourcing the materials is the first step. Based on the initial run size, you can start to reach out to the various vendors and place orders for the materials.

Production Planning

Production planning has been a part of this process from the get-go, but it’s time to fine tune those plans. Machinery tooling, line layout and footprint, quality control expectations, and a production timeline are the next boxes to check. Having all of those details fully laid out will pay off immensely once production time comes around.

Production

Look how far you’ve come since the concept stage. Production should be the most exciting portion of this process because your client finally gets to see their idea come together in physical form. Inviting your client in to observe the first run is always a nice gesture, so make sure to offer that up before getting into production.

Fulfillment

Production has wrapped up, everything has been packed out, and your client is ready to get their product out to market. Arranging shipments direct to consumers, to retail locations, or to distribution centers is the final stage of this long, but incredibly exciting and rewarding, process.

Review

No matter how successful the initial production run was, there’s always room for improvement. Sitting down or scheduling a call with your client after the first run to review the entire process can never hurt. In the most basic terms, you want to make sure that you met or exceeded expectations. A small tweak here or there could drive efficiency up and costs down, so it’s important to examine everything.

Original source: Case Mason

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