When it comes to the product development process, the thing that impresses me the most is that initial spark. It’s the birthplace of innovation, and that “AHA!” moment that spirals into the creation of a problem-solving product. It’s a thought process evolution of, “This could be easier. This SHOULD be easier. But how?”
There’s an opportunity with each challenge, and that is exactly what happened at Premier Mounts when our design team began the process of developing our new Mobile Transport Cart (MTC). We’ve held long-standing partnerships with members of the Rental & Staging industry, and in one of our consultations, we determined that their installation process is much more laborious than it needs to be. Our products are designed to offer the most convenient, most cost-effective experience possible, so it only made sense to create a new tool that would continue to deliver just that.
For one thing, we felt that installing multiple stands takes too much time, and for another, these installations hold the potential for too many injuries. Like the ancient Mesopotamians, we thought, “well, what about adding wheels?” So we began the process of creating the industry’s first Mobile Transport Cart to streamline the install process.
Some might say, “but what about a dolly, or a hand truck? Those have wheels!”
True statement. Lets explore it.
Let’s say you take a hand truck with a 14” x 8” nose plate (and I don’t even mention hardwood dollies, because they don’t have handles for maneuverability). If you’re trying to transport a 35.5” x 29.5” TS base, without even factoring in the poles and mount dimensions, this leaves over 935 square inches of equipment protruding off the edge of the hand truck, open to equipment damage or installer injury. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (a part of the U.S. Department of Labor), 3.8% of full-time “laborers and freight, stock, and material movers” experienced a nonfatal occupational injury in 2012, with the average time away from work being 10 days.
In our research, we also found that many R&S installers were disassembling stands, piling them onto a hand truck for transport, and then reassembling the equipment at the job site. That means that they were multiple bases, one by one, with some of the other components to transport this shaky and heavy array to the installation site, hoping that they didn’t throw their back out, or drop a heavy piece of equipment on a foot in the process. But hey, at the end of this risky journey, at least they had transported ONE piece of equipment, right?
This makes about as much sense to me as the last Pauly Shore movie I saw.
Why would you want to run such a risky operation? Our design team set out to avoid this process by providing a tool that would transport up to 4 complete stands at once, not only providing a safer mode of transport, but also one that would cut down on installation time by 75%.
We began having round table discussions with our partners in the R&S industry, inquiring as to what other benefits we might deliver with this new tool. We shared some of our ideas, which were received with sighs of relief and a few additional pain points that R&S team members long wished would be addressed. Then we quickly got to work on creating 3D and 2D design concepts.
The initial concept models were a good start, but we wouldn’t be pacified with an “acceptable” product, so we dug deeper, addressing compact storage and maneuverability features. It was an editing process, further perfecting the product with each pass until we could craft the MTC into something with, quite literally, a benefit from every angle. We gave a place to each component of a stand, added rubber non-marring bumpers and 5” locking plate casters, and determined the ideal product dimensions to glide easily through narrow 30” doorways. Next we added a push-pull handle that could be removed in space-conservation cases, tie-down cutouts for security while loaded on a moving truck, optional adaptor bracket cutouts for our PSD-HDCA and PSD-SPA Adaptors, and forklift-lifting channels to lift and lower the MTC without damaging the loaded equipment. We also included side-loading capabilities to avoid strain from lifting and lowering heavy bases, and the option to store poles either horizontally or vertically to accommodate various storage and transport needs.
Once we were satisfied with the model specifications, we built a prototype of the Mobile Transport Cart, and tested it in the field to see how it performed under its intended conditions. It was well received and held up spectacularly in a R&S environment, but we determined that we wanted to add one final touch. The Pièce de résistance was adding a comfort-grip to the push-pull handle, giving user-friendly comfort when pushing a heavy load for extended periods of time and through a variety of environments.
The product development process is a fascinating evolution to follow. What might have been seen as a tool that moves things, becomes so much more than that. It becomes a safety tool, avoiding workers compensation cases and time lost from work. It becomes a team member, taking on the work of 3 additional installers so that you can turn four jobs into one. It becomes a marketing tool, offering branding and color options so that you not only stand out from your competitors, but you’re also able to work on high-end installations during client business hours during which aesthetic presentation is key. The only thing the MTC is missing is a button marked “Teleport.”
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