GREAT IDEAS ARE JUST THE START
WE BUILD SUCCESS
PROCESS
SPI is an invention company backed up by informed marketing skills and precision engineering to turn those ideas into successful product lines for our partners. The SPI approach to product development is fully encompassing from concept to product launch and beyond. Our Shared Risk/Shared Reward model means that we partner with companies to maximize their R&D dollars in return for a share of the product success. Whether we partner during the creation phase or license a product that was fully developed in-house, we work on projects that we are passionate about and truly believe will be a success.
Every great product was once just an idea. First and foremost, we are inventors that are constantly evaluating new ideas to find the ones that we are most excited about taking to the next step.
IDEATION
Our lab is equipped with various rapid prototyping equipment to enable quick testing of the core concepts of an idea to help build project momentum.
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PROOF OF CONCEPT
Turning an idea into a successful product requires a thorough understanding of the market. It’s only with this knowledge that a product can be designed to address the market needs and price points to ensure success.
Market Research
Patent protection is the cornerstone of our projects to ensure long term market success.
Intellectual Property
Combining the core concept ideas into a complete system requires prototyping, and prototyping, and prototyping, and prototyping…….
Prototyping
As inventors and designers, it’s easy to forget that customers view and interact with products in unexpected ways. Getting prototypes into the hands of the customers, and unbiasedly monitoring how they are used, results in products that will function as intended and contain only the right features.
Field Testing
Field testing alone cannot provide insight to longevity without slowing down the product development. Combining real world testing with intelligently designed accelerated life testing in the lab ensures products that last.
Accelerated Life Testing
A culmination of all lessons learned in the previous steps. Our unified team of the same people that studied the market, built prototypes, and observed customers using the system during field tests, are also the production designers.
ProductioN
Design
A great design is only as good as the documentation required to make the design a reality. Painstaking attention to every detail of the form, fit, and function of the design results in a design that can be built by partners anywhere in the world.
Design
Documentation
Since Design for Manufacture and Assembly are important considerations in the production design, we leverage our detailed 3D models to produce easy-to-use manufacturing instructions and quality control materials resulting in products with outstanding out-of-box quality.
ManufacturingDocumentation
We work side-by-side with manufacturing partners before and during the initial production build to make sure all documentation is accurate and properly implemented. After the initial launch, we continue to provide manufacturing support to overcome the growing pains associated with scaling up to support a successful product line.
Manufacturing
setup & Support
A successful product launch consists of much more than the product itself. Items such as packaging design and testing, completed agency compliance testing, and marketing tools and materials are vital components of a product launch. We work closely with our partners to ensure every detail is covered before launch day arrives.
Product Launch
PRODUCTS
The best proof of a successful product development process is successful products. SPI developed product lines have secured over $8 billion in sales for our partners. Below are some samples of our work:
Sealed Air’s latest generation inflatable cushioning system. With the inflatable cushioning market poised for rapid expansion, we developed NewAir I.B. Flex™ with the versatility to produce inflatable cushioning ranging from cost-efficient light duty offerings to high-performance materials that rival the cushioning of foam. Combined with unparalleled speed, reliability, and a service interval of one million feet of material run, the NewAir I.B. Flex™ is the ideal protective packaging solution.
The latest offering in Sealed Air’s market leading Fill-Air® inflatable void-fill product line. Leveraging our intimate understanding of the market and customer needs, we designed Fill-Air Rocket™ from the ground-up to be the fastest and most feature-rich system, while simultaneously being the most reliable and simplest to use. The introduction of Fill-Air Rocket™ resulted in an increase in the already impressive growth of the Fill-Air product line to ensure success for years to come.
GyRings are the brainchild of young inventor Jakob Sperry. We partnered with Jakob to help him turn his idea for a fidget toy into a consumer success with a loyal following of happy customers. Jakob worked side-by-side with the SPI team to build prototypes to discover the ideal design, redesign for optimal injection molding, and even launch his own company, GyRings, LLC. After a successful localized product launch, we worked with Jakob to license GyRings to Brainwright.
We had the honor of working with the talented kinetic sculpture artist, Arthur Ganson, to help turn his idea of a chain reaction toy into a consumer product brought to market by HandsOnToys. It uses a series of launch/landing pads, each of which can be configured to the desired aim, force, and launch angle to create an exciting and educational chain reaction of flying foam cats. The injection molded design incorporates all that configurability into a child-safe toy with snap together assembly.
Using key innovations created for Fill-Air® Cyclone™, we developed the NewAir I.B.® Express system to redefine Sealed Air’s inflatable cushioning offerings. The onsite inflation of pressurized inflatable cushioning material saves on incoming shipping and valuable warehouse floorspace, while the small footprint and variety of accessories make the system ideal for any packing operation. The success of NewAir I.B.® Express opened up additional opportunities in the inflatable cushioning market.
Building on the market success of Fill-Air® 2000, Fill-Air® Cyclone™ was designed as a smaller, portable, lower cost option to secure Sealed Air’s position as the market leader in inflatable void-fill packaging. The versatile Fill-Air® Cyclone™ is small enough to be used at a single packing station, yet fast enough to supply high-paced multi-drop overhead delivery systems. After years of continued growth, we critically evaluated our own design and how it fit into the competitive market.
Fill-Air® 2000 transformed the inflatable void-fill market by designing a system that could rapidly produce air-filled cushions on-site to keep up with even the most high-paced packing lines. The novel sealing devices, ease of use, and simplicity of service of Fill-Air® 2000 was the catalyst for the rapid growth and success of Sealed Air’s market leading Fill-Air® product line. As market trends began to change, we spring-boarded off the Fill-Air® 2000 to design the compact Fill-Air® Cyclone™.
The Sealed Air PriorityPak® system is a complete high-speed automated packaging system designed to be simple to use and integrate into the customer’s warehouse. PriorityPak® was ahead of it’s time in terms of reduction of pack size and minimal packaging material used, but the introduction of dim-weight shipping costs by all the major carriers has revitalized the importance of the PriorityPak® technology in today’s market.
Rapid Fill® system was designed around the unique approach to inflatable void-fill of having the air bag inflated after the box is closed. This approach enabled more automation to the packing process and more consistent, properly packed boxes while using the least material possible to fill large voids. As market trends moved away from centralized pack lines and emphasized the use of smaller boxes to save on shipping costs, we designed the versatile Fill-Air Rocket™ system to transition users.
Openings
Although we are not currently hiring, we're always interested in talking to people who are passionate about product development and why they believe they would be an invaluable asset to our team. If that sounds like you, send a message to hr@sperryinc.com
Co-op Program
We are proud to be a part of Northeastern University’s Cooperative Education (co-op) Program. Typically there are 1 or 2 co-op students working as full-time members of the SPI team, where they gain experience in all phases of product development. Our innovative, fast-paced, hands-on environment gives the co-op students a crash course in what it takes to bring a product from concept to successful market release. This partnership has been a great success as multiple, outstanding students have returned for a 2nd co-op term or full-time employment after graduation.
Summer Internship
We occasionally offer Summer Internships. To inquire about possible positions, contact us at hr@sperryinc.com
