JUNE 20228DEVELOPING NEW PRODUCTS AT LIGHTSPEEDMark Wehde, Chair, Mayo Clinic EngineeringByMark WehdeLast spring we were faced with the immovable object of the impending global pandemic. Organizations, even those that hadn't yet embraced business agility, were suddenly forced to adapt. As we move into year two of the pandemic, organizations that were agile and responsive or that learned quickly how to be agile and responsive have positioned themselves to succeed. The agile movement grew out of the software development industry. Software developers have the advantage in that they can rapidly modify and test new ideas and make changes on the fly. This is why some of the best system engineers have software development backgrounds and why many of the modern agile development methodologies grew out of the software industry. Much has changed in recent years and now, more than ever, hardware developers need to embrace the agile development of new products for both electronics and mechanical design. Electrical engineers find that much of their work can be done using microcontrollers or FPGAs (field programmable gate arrays). There are even FPAAs (field programmable analog arrays) available. This allows for easy changes to basic hardware topologies on the fly. Mechanical engineers also have modern toolsets, such as the variety of 3D printers. This allows them to try ideas and create new parts daily or even more often if needed. Contract manufacturers also now have to ability to quickly create inexpensive molds to support prototyping. And, of course, both electrical and mechanical engineers now have sophisticated computer modeling tools available and much of the early product discovery work can be done computationally. What all this means in practice is that modern agile methodologies developed by software engineers to build better code can now be used by hardware developers as well. Agile methodologies are relatively mature and have been adopted by a significant majority of software engineers. Agile hardware methodologies are a much more recent advance, though not a new concept. Engineers have always tried to design prototypes that gave them flexibility when things didn't work. But there are unavoidable challenges such as long procurement times for Early clinician engagement and involvement in the design and strategic direction of hospital digital programmes can create a sense of ownership and belonginess amongst clinicians, which can spread across all levels of the organisationIn My Opinion
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