Industrial Design in the Defence sector

The benefits of successful design in addition to functionality

The obvious benefits to end users also translate into tangible business advantage for those companies who invest in product design ; in terms of increased sales, profitability and brand value.

 In contrast, product development in the defence sector has tended to be driven by more purely functional criteria, which are of course of vital importance, but which miss the opportunity to create the significant additional value that is made possible by deeper design consideration of usability, materials, manufacturing and ‘look and feel’ factors.

 Until relatively recently this ‘functional’ approach was also the main driver in the medical sector, where it was felt that industrial design had little to offer and “as long as the product meets the functional requirements then nothing else matters”.

 However, our experience at Kinneir Dufort, working in the both the medical and defence sectors, demonstrates that things can and do change, bringing significant user and business benefits through timely design intervention.

 For example : when we were approached by Boehringer Ingelheim of Germany to help re-design their ‘Inhalator’ inhaler in 1992 we naturally paid careful attention to the functional requirements specification, but we went further and designed an easier to use and safer device, more in tune with users’ everyday ‘real world’ habits and needs. At the same time we created a distinctive look and feel, unique in the market and in the industry, and developed the design for production to reduce the product’s manufacturing cost to less than half of its functional (and aesthetically anonymous) predecessor. Soon after its launch the ‘Handihaler’ quickly became a ‘blockbuster’ success, the unique design innovations and features applauded by the industry and users alike, and protected by multiple international patents and design registration.

 The Handihaler experience marked a turning point, in the medical sector and for KD, with industrial design recognised as being key to user acceptance, market success and value creation, as well as delivering on functional imperatives. Certainly, industrial design and innovation is now regarded by most forward thinking medical companies as an essential element in their product development and business strategy.

 Increasingly we see a similar pattern and opportunity emerging in the defence sector, and our experiences in recent years bear this out, with innovative industrial design allied to engineering and manufacturing know-how to deliver significant advantage which goes beyond the functional requirements specification.

It is particularly in the area of the dismounted soldier, vehicle mounted systems, and general land based applications, that we find successful Tier 1 suppliers to the MoD are realising the value of early industrial design input into their programmes. Projects which are of a UOR nature also benefit, despite the compressed timescales, as timing is often a constraint in designing for fast moving commercial markets, where a product is developed relatively quickly and may have a correspondingly short life cycle before the next development comes along – vital in maintaining a market lead.

When development lead-times are compressed, the integration of available COTS hardware becomes more important in achieving speed to manufacture, keeping development costs under control and providing users with more immediately familiar technology and interactions. We have seen the move in the defence sector towards the use of, for instance, off the shelf mobile and smart-phone technology to reduce cost, time and risk of development. These technologies are also increasingly preferred by end users who want more intuitive and familiar product formats, user interfaces and controls, like they are used to in the commercial world. 

This use of COTS hardware, and it’s integration into custom designed, ruggedised assemblies is where our experience can bring considerable advantage. Certainly, bringing together our knowledge of commercial injection moulded plastics technology with industrial and mechanical design to make off the shelf electronics suit the harsh military environment, is in our view a necessary part of successful product design in the modern defence sector. More than ever before, the use of up to date plastics materials and design methods, combined with rapid prototyping and tooling, are needed to reduce weight and cost ; replacing more conventional machined or die-cast metals.

Our work for Thales, in the design development of the Miltrak soldier tracking system is a good example of the success of this approach, particularly in the context of a UOR. KD were involved from early design conceptualisation, where we were advocating the use of engineering thermoplastics in the product housings and mechanical assemblies in order to replace heavier and more expensive metal alloy castings. Through development, rapid prototyping and then prototype tooling we were able to provide Thales with trial assemblies in the intended production materials to verify the design. It was a logical step thereafter for KD to follow through and use its commercial supply network to provide the production tooling, plastics parts and assembly, enabling Thales to fulfill their customer’s requirements on time and on budget. Crucially though, it was the ability to show the customer early on how the product would look, feel and perform in the users’ hands, and to generate a sense of excitement and anticipation with a design that also expressed the product’s unique lightweight yet robust qualities that helped seal the contract.

  Looking forward, we see that the defence sector, like the medical sector, will increasingly recognise the opportunity to build greater value through earlier and more comprehensive industrial design input. At Kinneir Dufort many of our commercial sector projects start with a full research process whereby stakeholders may be engaged, where ideation sessions can create a multitude of new ideas and concepts. The design scope can embrace strategic portfolio development, the creation and re-positioning of brands, new product / service offerings, future trends, as well as exploration of manufacturing and material options.

In particular, the value of timely design related research in uncovering insights and behaviours should not be underestimated, as this is often the essential starting point for rapid concept creation (eg when coupled with fast track innovation processes like KD’s Momentum^TM ). Add to this KD’s state of the art industrial design and integrated electronics and software development, plus on-site rapid prototyping and the ability to bring into play an experienced manufacturing supply network, and the value becomes even clearer.