Pilot Production: How to Plan and Run a Manufacturing Pilot Before Mass Production

What you'll get

David Willson of Fictiv, a manufacturing marketplace, explains that a pilot run is a limited batch made on production tooling at production settings to prove the process, where a prototype run proves the design, and covers when one is worth doing, what to measure in it (process capability, yield, cycle time, tool wear and assembly fits) and how to set pass or fail rules before it starts. It is written for engineers and uses automotive and aerospace terms, so skim the jargon and keep the idea that a limited first run on real tooling shows what a prototype cannot.