Many industries use the “value engineering” designation as a way to remove components in a cost-cutting attempt. Draper® approaches engineering from the opposite direction. We work to add value by providing quality solutions that fit the customer’s needs.
Explaining how this happens across our product lines is the connecting factor of our new podcast series, Engineering Value. Each month, host Sean Heath and guests will bring thought leadership on how Draper finds success in U.S. manufacturing by adding value, not cutting corners.
On the first episode of Engineering Value, Grant Wylie, director of product management for AV mounts and structures, discusses the way in which Draper is rehabilitating the concept of value.
“I’ve seen some markets out there where they actually use the word ‘value’ to show that that’s their lowest quality product or their lowest priced product,” Wylie said. “When we’re doing ‘value engineering,’ we’re actually looking at, ‘how do we make the product better, faster, stronger, but also maintain the same price-point or cost-point for our end-users?’”
Wylie and Heath will also discuss innovations in AV mounts and structures, and some of the challenges faced by designers and engineers.
“Gravity is the thing we’re always against,” Wylie said during the podcast. “It’s a good thing because it keeps us secure to the ground, but with that everything that we try to install to build onto walls or ceilings or anywhere else, we’re always fighting gravity to make sure the component or item stays put.”
Wylie shared some stories about recent installations and discussed how he and the rest of the Draper team shepherd projects through to completion.
“My role is really focused around managing what our products are, who we’re selling them to, how we’re selling them to our customers,” Wylie said, “really identifying what our customers are looking for on a daily basis and how we tie what we do into what they need.”
“Innovation inevitably creates a cascade effect,” Heath said. “Everything is connected within each new innovation. There are so many different iterations of improvements that have to come along with the next big thing.”
To learn more about the Draper approach to value and innovations in the AV mounts and structures space, check out the first episode of Engineering Value. Click here to listen now!
