Implementing an Efficient Minimum Viable Product in Industry 4.0

In 2020, we call it Industry 4.0 and it is looking to grow up to €185 billion in market value by 2022. In turn, the Industry 4.0 startups must be engaging, authentic, and up to date. The market competition as fierce as nowadays is unforgiving to anyone introducing a new project to the diverse realm of manufacturing automation.


And that's where a minimum viable product (MVP) comes in as a real game-changer, allowing you to test out the basic idea of a new product among the real target audience and decide whether it's worth continuing to work on. With MVP, you basically give a taste of what you have in store to the audience of users.


Based on their engagement and feedback, you can see how much potential there is in the expansion of your basic product for further promotion and distribution in the market. This is a well-tried-and-tested commercial technique that takes but a couple of essential stages to implement.

Building an MVP beforehand is an efficient, hugely popular practice that brings both user and provider benefits by:

• Allowing to see approximately how the startup will do at the particular moment, in the particular circumstances;
  
  
• Helping to achieve utter user satisfaction and meet the market demands more precisely;
  
  
• Letting combine functionality and minimalism to hit the right spot on the market at the first full release and save lots of costs on efficient product expansion.
  

At the same time, keep in mind that MVP is unlikely to be a good way to make some initial profit - you will probably not get any profit whatsoever, with the main goal to explore and pinpoint the audience. You may also forget about "showing-off" visually with an intricate design - the core functionality and minimalism are of the essence here.

To provide you with some further pro tips on handling an MVP most successfully, let us highlight what you shouldn't do and what to better avoid on the path of the MVP market introduction. Here are the top 5 common mistakes you'd better steer clear off when implementing a modern MVP solution.

Essentially, you don't jump to the conclusions - you first demonstrate the "wheels" of your product, then add a "steering wheel" for users to try and manipulate it, then all the rest of the desired, more complex functionality for the final release.

The most important thing with all the MVP affairs is to settle with the proper concept that will be focused on your particular niche and goals. How do market players work on their MVPs in practice?

We can take a look at least at these two prominent on-demand manufacturing minimum viable product examples.

eCozy is a German startup tapping into enhancing the convenience of climate control at home. The project offered an advanced thermostat with a touchscreen and remote controls via a dedicated application for a smart heating solution. Currently, it is an innovative product with an international demand that is distributed in multi-million markets.

Being implemented, the startup took a few years to reach its final success, drawing in all the required initial investments in 2014, announcing the product during Indiegogo in 2016, and releasing an MVP that hit the retail stores for collecting user feedback in the middle of 2016.

Then, there's MakeTime - a US-made on-demand, Manufacturing-as-a-Service platform focused on 3D printing and CNC machining. A solution, which aimed at connecting CNC machine vendors and buyers, had grown from the initial prototype that was turned into an MVP with the goal of raising two rounds of funding.

Eventually, the finished solution has gathered an audience of 1,000+ dedicated manufacturers. In 2018, it was profitably purchased by the leading on-demand manufacturing company Xometry.

Treat the MVP creation responsibly and you may go a long way with your product, reaching truly successful prospects instead of wasting time on creating alternatives and going through different options. In general, Agile methodology may be much more efficient in the case of creating an MVP as opposed to the Waterfall practices - keep this in mind. Employed technologies are also crucial and this is where we believe that Ruby on Rails does the most magic.

Anyway, if you are looking for a fully professional approach and final solution built based on the proper experience and expertise - we are here for you. The above pro tips are the least we can do for you - use them to your benefit or contact us to discuss the details of your future MVP project implemented by the dedicated specialists.