Your Project
Timeline
Timing is of the essence… One very important thing you need to keep in mind is your timeline.
When manufacturing a product you have your goals of when you want to get your final product out on the market, however there are things that might come up pushing that date back. When we receive the question “how long will it take to manufacture my product?”
The short and simple answer is “6 to 18 weeks”. This time frame includes:
- Gathering materials from the warehouse
- QA inspection and release
- Pre-weigh and formulation
- Packaging
- QA inspection and testing
- COA release
- Prepping the shipment
While this 6-week time frame may be doable, you also need to consider your development time in your timeline. There are some tasks that will add time to your timeline:
TASK 1
- If you haven’t started, or are still working on, your branding when you get set up for manufacturing, this will add time to your timeline. We cannot move forward with manufacturing until we receive everything we need for the final packaging. This would include bottles, cartons, labels, etc. We have an in-house design and marketing team that can help develop your branding. Not only are they specialists in the field, it’s also helpful that they can work side by side with our other teams that are helping develop your product. When working with a specialist you can reduce the time it takes to complete your tasks at hand.
TASK 2
Finding the perfect packaging
- Another thing that might lengthen your timeline is sourcing packaging. Our team here has many sources who can help find what you’re looking for. But depending on what you want it could take a while for those items to be delivered. If you go a custom packaging route it will take time to develop and manufacture those items. If you like a generic product you still have to make sure it gets ordered while it’s in stock, otherwise you may have to wait until more become available.
TASK 2
Finding the perfect packaging
- Another thing that might lengthen your timeline is sourcing packaging. Our team here has many sources who can help find what you’re looking for. But depending on what you want it could take a while for those items to be delivered. If you go a custom packaging route it will take time to develop and manufacture those items. If you like a generic product you still have to make sure it gets ordered while it’s in stock, otherwise you may have to wait until more become available.
TASK 3
Defining finished product specifications
- This is the specifics of how the client would like the product to be formulated, manufactured, packaged, etc. For example, if a client wants their product to be filled all the way to the top, sealed with a bow, and placed into smaller boxes of 6 bottles a box. This is doable but production time will increase to secure and manufacture this and also would increase typical manufacturing cost.
TASK 4
Setting up your supply chain
and strategy up-front
- This comes to how specific the components to make the product are; some ingredients are easy to come by but some only come from certain parts of the world and may only be harvested at certain times of the year, are subject to changes environmentally, authenticity and other factors that could affect supply. By knowing where or how to get the items you want will help the manufacturing process or might prolong your timeline.
TASK 4
Setting up your supply chain
and strategy up-front
- This comes to how specific the components to make the product are; some ingredients are easy to come by but some only come from certain parts of the world and may only be harvested at certain times of the year, are subject to changes environmentally, authenticity and other factors that could affect supply. By knowing where or how to get the items you want will help the manufacturing process or might prolong your timeline.
TASK 5
Safety Stock
- This is your backup plan for instances where something is not available, or to buy extra to mitigate loss during manufacturing, shipping, etc. Having such a plan set in place could help keep your timeline on track rather than getting thrown off the rails if something comes up.
Timelines can really shift based on what your plans for your product are. Perfecting your formulation can happen right away or may take a while going back and forth with the lab to get there.
Whether you’re working with our in-house design team or your own designers, if you’re branding requires a lot of development that can set you back. If you have a specific idea for packaging vs wanting to go with stock options that are readily available, that can add time for sourcing and obtaining.
There are many other steps to prepping your product that can create longer timelines for finalizing a product. If you have questions about how long it will take to develop a product or product line, contact us and our team can help guide you on how long it could possibly take.
