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Not all plans are cre­at­ed equal. The only goal of com­mer­cial­iza­tion is to reduce risk on the path to prof­itable oper­a­tion. The stage of the pro­gram, the com­plex­i­ty of the equip­ment and process­es, the cost pro­file of mate­ri­als, and tech­nol­o­gy matu­ri­ty all define risk, but in dif­fer­ent ways. Pick the wrong one and the odds of suc­cess take a hit. For­tu­nate­ly, regard­less of matu­ri­ty, cost, and com­plex­i­ty there is an opti­mal path; they key is to find it and use it.

Our tech­ni­cal strate­gies pro­duce suc­cess­ful out­comes in many busi­ness sit­u­a­tions. We have a proven track record from boot-strapped start-ups to For­tune 20 cor­po­ra­tions. We have exe­cut­ed pro­grams rang­ing from research con­cepts through high-vol­ume man­u­fac­tur­ing demon­stra­tions. We know what infor­ma­tion we need and what ques­tions to ask. We know how to pull togeth­er the sched­ule and mile­stones to ensure a smooth flow­ing pro­gram with key checkpoints.

We will find an opti­mal method for pro­duc­ing or scal­ing your prod­uct. Our expe­ri­ence includes all aspects of process devel­op­ment and inte­gra­tion; from basic research to high-vol­ume man­u­fac­tur­ing; from tech­ni­cal plan­ning through pro­gram execution.

Organizational Management

Set­ting pri­or­i­ties and goals of an orga­ni­za­tion are framed in the con­text of inter­nal capa­bil­i­ties and resources, exter­nal real­i­ties, and time. We set the approach based on these con­straints, and can guide the orga­ni­za­tion towards an opti­mal set of pri­or­i­ties and goals (see our Case Stud­ies here and here.) Depend­ing on the clien­t’s needs we can devel­op and exe­cute plans at the appro­pri­ate lev­el of detail.

Ele­ments of Success:

• Iden­ti­fy­ing the clien­t’s resources, con­straints, and requirements.
• Under­stand the mar­ket envi­ron­ment (cur­rent and projected).
• Col­lab­o­ra­tive­ly iden­ti­fy and refine pri­or­i­ties, then goals.

Operational Management

We pro­vide oper­a­tional man­age­ment ser­vices that com­ple­ment the clien­t’s needs. Please see our offer­ings here.

Materials Research

At the research stage, the suc­cess is mea­sured by demon­strat­ing that either the mate­r­i­al can even be made, or if the mate­r­i­al per­forms as desired. Our suc­cess in cre­at­ing new mate­ri­als  is based on out Mate­ri­als Sci­ence and research  back­ground. We set up and imple­ment these types of pro­grams where the focus is to deter­mine what it takes to demon­strate that the mate­r­i­al works, and learn what are the crit­i­cal phys­i­cal rela­tion­ships in process or mate­ri­als per­for­mance. We know what it takes to invent or improve the mate­r­i­al, and will be able to prove it or refine the path for­ward. (See case study here.)

Manufacturing Scaling

Scal­ing man­u­fac­turable process­es requires a dif­fer­ent set of issues com­pared to lab­o­ra­to­ry or pilot scale process­es. Because often the cap­i­tal invest­ment and risk tol­er­ance are high that suc­cess is a mat­ter of “when” instead of “if”. There­fore we set up and imple­ment pro­grams where the focus is prov­ing how well the next stage works and meet­ing through­put and cost tar­gets, while meet­ing per­for­mance spec­i­fi­ca­tions. (See case study here.)

Line Design and Analysis

Line design is the embod­i­ment of unit process­es and the process flow. Prop­er design is crit­i­cal for com­mer­cial suc­cess. We under­stand the inter­play between process flow and the line, and how to learn from exist­ing line capa­bil­i­ties to refine the next line gen­er­a­tion. In sit­u­a­tions where no line exists, we draw on our deep expe­ri­ence in process inte­gra­tion to devel­op a pro­to­type line. (See case study here.)

Ele­ments of success:

• Well-defined line specifications.
• Detailed process line analysis.
• Effi­cient line exper­i­men­ta­tion and optimization.

Process Integration

All suc­cess­ful com­mer­cial­iza­tion efforts require robust process inte­gra­tion plans, and is our core strength. We can suc­cess­ful­ly inte­grate process flows from research con­cepts to pro­duc­tion line demonstrations.

Ele­ments of success:

• Iden­ti­fy prod­uct spec­i­fi­ca­tions, and pro­gram goals.
• Iden­ti­fy unit process specifications.
• Exe­cute key exper­i­men­ta­tion to exer­cise process lim­its on schedule.

Vendor Evaluation

We have deep expe­ri­ence in find­ing exter­nal ven­dors to ensure the best resources are avail­able your pro­gram. This includes iden­ti­fi­ca­tion and vet­ting of solu­tion providers to ensure the best fit for your par­tic­u­lar projects as well as sup­port for your con­tract negotiations.

Ele­ments of success:

• Main­tain­ing focus on find­ing opti­mal solu­tions that work for all.
• Stay­ing up-to-date on offer­ings of key mar­ket vendors.
• Lever­age suc­cess­ful pri­or expe­ri­ence / con­sid­er alter­na­tive solu­tions in unique situations.

Capital Equipment Acquisition

Many com­mer­cial­iza­tion plans include some aspect of cap­i­tal equip­ment acqui­si­tion. Acqui­si­tion can include pur­chase of exist­ing new or used equip­ment, or even the inven­tion of new equip­ment, depend­ing on tech­nol­o­gy specifics. We can iden­ti­fy the equip­ment options, and dri­ve the project through all steps: strat­e­gy, def­i­n­i­tion, spec­i­fi­ca­tion, ven­dor iden­ti­fi­ca­tion, con­tract nego­ti­a­tions, deliv­ery, instal­la­tion, and validation.

Process Development

Process devel­op­ment forms the basis of any com­mer­cial­iza­tion pro­gram. All process­es require the same over­all approach: iden­ti­fy­ing the out­put spec­i­fi­ca­tions, map­ping the func­tion­al­i­ty of the process, and clos­ing or opti­miz­ing process con­di­tions. Our expe­ri­ence from the dozens of process­es devel­oped in the semi­con­duc­tor, solar, and ener­gy stor­age fields, gives us a sol­id foun­da­tion on which to devel­op new processes.