From Prototype to Production: Focus on Manufacturing for Low Volume Production of an On-Farm Milk Analyzing Device

Abstract

The dairy industry is one of the bases of the food industry. Thus, improving it can enhance the efficiency of the total food market. The project developed in this thesis aims to join the current connectivity revolution that occurs in almost every field. Labby is a start-up that has developed a technology that enables farmers to control the milk. However, no design and manufacturing engineers were employed in this young company before. Thus, in this thesis, you will see a focus on the manufacturing that occurs after the design of the product that analyzes the milk. Challenges were found in the way that it should be a cheap, robust, and scalable part. The design and the surrounding of the product should be considered for the manufacturing. For that reason, two condensed chapters help to illustrate the track from ideation to production of the product. The final goal is to sell the product to dairy farms; thus, this thesis focuses on the tests that have been run throughout the months. Moreover, it will be explained how and why each part is manufactured in that particular way by sometimes comparing methods.