Lovebox : successfully industrialise your product from small to large series

Setting up industrialization

The Rtone teams met Lovebox during a phase of acceleration. The objective: scale up production from 500 units to 10,000 units.

We supported several key steps:

• Validating the redesign
• Managing the selection of manufacturers and sourcing components
• Monitoring production
• Assisting with shipping logistics

Supporting production autonomy

The Lovebox industrialization project was ambitious. Producing a young product at large scale is uncommon. The team called on Rtone at the right times to receive proper guidance during the various steps they needed to take. Two scale-ups and one production transfer in two years—a remarkable achievement!

Challenges to overcome

1. Meeting the Christmas deadline

The Lovebox is a popular gift, especially during the Christmas season. It’s THE event of the year not to be missed!

2. Establishing an ambitious production rate

To have the product ready for Christmas and avoid stock shortages, it was necessary to rapidly scale up production to reach 10,000 units within a few months.

3. Implementing a redesign and reducing costs

Scaling up production requires new thinking. Certain processes used for 500 units were unsuitable for 10,000. Joining after the redesign process began, the Rtone team had to find innovative ways to optimize remaining aspects for mass production.

4. Managing manufacturer selection and component sourcing

To support Lovebox in launching large-scale production, the most critical phase was selecting partners.

This involved multiple components: wood, electronics, packaging materials…

A few months were necessary to evaluate the shortlisted partners and make the final decision: setting up control plans, production tools, studying integration processes, ensuring interaction between stakeholders, and managing component sourcing and assembly at the integrator…

Every detail was accounted for to ensure successful production. Within a few months, the teams established a complete production chain operating at 500 boxes per week. Mission accomplished!

5. Monitoring production

Once production started, tools were implemented to monitor the process and act quickly in case of issues or defects. Monitoring included improving production quality, tracking technical defects, and managing unexpected issues…

Scaling up and transferring production

To sustain the product’s success, the next step was doubling production! For Lovebox, this meant considering a production transfer, as current manufacturers lacked the capacity for such volumes.

Managing technical constraints

Handling wood as a material

Managing a living material like wood was a real challenge during the production process. It raised numerous questions:

• How to manage a material that naturally changes during assembly and throughout the product’s life?
• How to maintain precision in the manufacturing process when variations of 2–3 tenths of a millimeter occur?
• How to establish quality control standards for wood: spots, natural grain… according to what criteria?

This material required extensive communication. The aesthetic aspect had to be integrated into quality control since a product might meet the manufacturer’s standards but not the final user’s expectations…

Connectivity testing

A solution was needed for conducting production tests in a factory without connectivity. The Start&Fab/Rtone teams tackled the challenge of finding a way to perform industrial Wi-Fi connectivity tests under these conditions. Additionally, they worked on verifying the product’s functionality without altering its initialization state for the end user.