More power to Product Design
LITEONMOBILE is investing new brains, muscles and pairs of hands in Product Design. The primary aim is to enhance the current mechanics design capability and capacity to cover also Hardware Design. Closer collaboration in design provides benefits in all future project steps: concepting, prototyping, tooling - and also in manufacturing.
In addition to hiring new people, new capabilities require other resources as well: design software, testing and lab equipment and premises. LITEONMOBILE / Perlos has three well-equipped design centers: in Turku, Finland, in Lund, Sweden and in Beijing, China.
Product Design Beijing is growing fast
- During 2008 we have already enhanced our antenna/RF design and acoustic design laboratories as well as our environmental and mechanical reliability testing facilities. The headcount of approximately 40 at the moment is complemented with HW Design capabilities like user interface, base band, RF audio and PWB layout expertise, says Lee Aik Peng , the head of the Beijing Product Design office.
According to development plans, the headcount in Beijing will be about 90 by the end of 2009. Beijing’s role is to provide comprehensive product design and testing capability and capacity close to manufacturing sites here in China. The Turku and Lund offices primarily serve European customer sites.
Acoustic Design Lab focuses on sound quality
Acoustic Design is a good example of enhancements that Beijing Design Center can now help the customers with. Samuel An , who is leading the development of the Acoustic Design lab in Beijing, knows that good sound quality is regarded as a critical feature when choosing a mobile phone.
- Especially young buyers put a lot of weight on sound quality. We can already now provide design and test services for the speaker and acoustic cavity, and our portfolio is expanding with audio design and testing.
Hardware design adds up to more value
Establishing the comprehensive Acoustic Design Lab is one step towards LITEONMOBILE’s long-term commitment to providing more advanced technical services and integrated design solutions.
Haixin Zhou , the head of Hardware Design in Beijing, is very excited about bringing LITEONMOBILE hardware design to a new level.
- We are already now involved in some mechanics design projects and our Hardware Design ability is being built up at a brisk pace. In practice this may mean, for instance, PWB layout modifications in programs in 2009 already.
As integration of electronics and mechanics increases, even the smallest changes in layout cause changes to design. Competence in all areas of product design yields benefits during the whole program life span: design is, after all, the master plan for building the device. Benefits run both ways, though.
- We have strong manufacturing and tooling knowhow that we can utilize already when drafting the design