Zebulon Solutions provides productization services to help clients bring products from design to manufacturing. They offer product design, analysis, industrialization, program management, and test development services. Their mission is to save clients time and money through an old-fashioned work ethic and focus on productization. They are based in Colorado and have experience helping companies in various industries launch over 100 products.

1. Zebulon Solutions
An old-fashioned company providing
modern productization solutions
Zebulon www.zebulonsolutions.com
Solutions, LLC

2. Executive Summary
Our Mission is to deliver solutions that
save our clients money and time.
Our Business is productization—turning
R&D projects into manufacturable
products.
Our Culture is old-fashioned, dedicated
to doing business in an honest, low-cost, Our Services include:
straight-forward and incredibly hard • Productization Services
• Product Design
working fashion. • Analysis
• Industrialization
Our Markets are diverse, but we • Program Management
specialize in medical and clean-tech. • Productization Management
• Fractional Executive
We’re lean. Which is a new-fangled • Business Consulting
word for cheap. Meaning we save
Zebulon you money.
Solutions, LLC

3. Productization Services from Zebulon Solutions
We turn R&D Projects into optimized, manufacturing ready products
Zebulon
Solutions, LLC

4. Who we are
We’re a bunch of hard-working guys who escaped the corporate high-
tech velodrome to try to make a difference
Chuck Hodges Keith Howard
President and Vice President
CEO
Zeb
Sage Advisor
Our pedigree includes global leader like Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft and
Flextronics; market segment leaders like Lifescan (medical) and May & Scofield
(automotive); and a gaggle of startups. Our team all tend to have a little gray in
their proverbial beards and a slew of product designs under their belts.
Collectively we’ve launched over 100 products into manufacturing.
Zebulon
Solutions, LLC

5. Where we are
We’re located in Berthoud, Colorado, USA, population 4000
• Our office / lab is less than an hour from University of Not counting the cows
Colorado and Colorado State University
• Denver, Boulder, Ft Collins, Longmont, and Loveland are all
within 45 miles radius
• Just because we’re from a small town doesn’t mean we’re not
global: we’re only an hour from Denver International Airport
Zebulon www.zebulonsolutions.com
Solutions, LLC

6. Our Value Add
We get your products into production
• How much money could you save if your next product gets to market ON TIME?
• Instead of what happened on that last program, which was ___ weeks / months late...
We provide professional program management
 Many small to mid-size companies can’t afford an in-house team of program
managers and a system to support them
We work on per-project basis
 Do you really want to hire in this economy?
We can help your business run better
 Tighter contracts; eliminated waste; better cash flow
We can help you select the right manufacturing out-sourcing partner
 We know the players, including their strengths and weaknesses, and we know how
to optimize you out-sourcing dollar
We can save you $$$ by doing all this
Or € or ¥ or SEK or £ or RMB…
Zebulon
Solutions, LLC

7. Productization
Zebulon Solutions helps its customer bridge the gap between design
and manufacturing via productization services and management
throughout the product life cycle
 The design phase is typically where 80% of the effort is typically spent
 The productization phase is where 80% of the problems typically occur
We have a long and distinguished track record of taking diverse
products from science project to volume production. Examples:
 PDAs  Base stations
 Game consoles  Telematic systems
 Robotic systems  Medical devices
 Cell phones  Enterprise telsets
 Satellite radio receivers  Dryer consoles
Productization Definition:
Turning R&D projects into manufacturing ready products
Zebulon This is not as simple as it sounds.
Solutions, LLC

8. Productization Service Offerings
Zebulon Solutions offers the following productization services:
 Product Design
 Analysis
 Industrialization
 Program Management
 Some ideas for possible productization engagements:
Zebulon
Solutions, LLC

9. Productization Management Offerings
In addition, Zebulon Solutions provides management solutions
for companies needing higher level support and / or
leadership:
 Fractional Executives
 Business Consulting
Zebulon
Solutions, LLC

10. What are we really good at
Everyone is really good at a few things, OK at a lot of things, and inept on too
many things to count. That’s OK—it means we are all human.
 Here’s what we’re really good at:
• Getting products past the “hump” that comes when you think that you’re 80% of the way
there but really only 20%
o This typically occurs somewhere after the design is looking pretty good, the prototypes
work, and you even have some market buzz going
o Then you start on the road to production ramp and all ___ breaks loose:
» Supply chain challenges; validation issues; industrialization has been overlooked; etc
o We help you through the nightmare that leads up to product launch
• Running complex programs from beginning to end
o On time, on budget, meeting the spec
o All the changes tracked obsessively (and there will be changes)
o We help you to ANTICIPATE the changes
• Business analysis
o We can look at a set of books and see how you can make more money. A fresh set of
eyes sees stuff you miss. We can smell waste.
o We really understand how to holistically look at ROI from a risk weighted perspective.
Zebulon No more rose-colored-glasses decisions
Solutions, LLC

11. Why Zebulon Solutions?
75+ years of collected management experience
• Experience we can apply to your program
• We have been there!
100+ successful product launches
• We know how to get products into production.
We specialize in Productization
• The hard and overlooked aspect to product launch.
• We complement your marketing and design teams to reach world class
execution
Leverage our industry knowledge
• Medical, Clean-tech, Automotive, Consumer, Telecom and Manufacturing
• We have worked with or for the world’s leading firms in each.
An old-fashioned approach and commitment to our customers
Zebulon
Solutions, LLC

12. What we ask from our customers
We only ask three things from our customers:
1. Please pay your bills on time
• This allows us to keep our prices low and food on the table
2. Fill out our quarterly customer satisfaction surveys.
3. If you like our service, tell your friends, colleagues and pets about us
Zebulon Solutions, LLC Customer Survey
Name: Legend
Company: 5 = Absolutely Agree
Project: 4 = Somewhat Agree
Date: 3 = Neutral
2 = Somewhat Disagree
1 = Substantially Disagree
1 Zebulon Solutions was able to quickly understand the specific requirements for our program.
Score: Comments:
2 Zebulon Solutions worked with you and your team to develop clear and achievable objectives.
Score: Comments:
3 Zebulon Solutions worked within the scope of the project as outlined in the original RFQ.
Score: Comments:
4 Zebulon Solutions was able to bring a positive or new perspective to our project.
Score: Comments:
5 Zebulon Solutions brought value consistent with the quote that was agreed upon for the project.
Score: Comments:
6 The technology capabilities of Zebulon Solutions met or exceeded the requirement for the project.
Score: Comments:
7 Communication and technology transfer was acceptable for the purpose of this project
Score: Comments:
8 Contacting the key personnel associated with the project was acceptable and consistent with project expectations.
Score: Comments:
9 Overall, the experience with Zebulon Solutions was positive and beneficial to the success of the project.
Score: Comments:
Zebulon 10 We would recommend Zebulon Solutions for support of our other projects within our organization.
Score: Comments:
Solutions, LLC Average: -

13. Engagements
Our customer engagements over the past two years have been varied:
 As interim VP of Engineering, restructured a global engineering team to shift
focus from R&D to production ramp
 Designed the electronics module for a new medical device
 Set up supply chain for an industrial clean-tech product
 Detailed tolerance analysis on a complex electro-optical system
 Generated a Design Validation Test plan for a kiosk product
 Conducted a thorough design assessment of an RFID based inventory
management system, leading to performance enhancement and costs savings
 Cost reduced a robotics system, saving a half million dollars
 Facilitated DFMEAs for two clean-tech clients
 Set up financial systems and controls for three clients
 Delivered test fixtures to India
 Concept study of novel medical device
Zebulon
Solutions, LLC

14. Clients
Good luck with the next project. I
think Zebulon Solutions rocks!! Our client base is growing rapidly with
Best a mix of large and small companies
semo in diverse markets. Of course confidentiality
commitments prevent us from naming some of
the larger clients. A few examples include:
 A $6B manufacturing company diversifying into medical products
 Optibike, the manufacturer of the world’s highest performance electric bike
 A Silicon Valley network-attached-storage pioneer
 An Australian optics pioneer Our customers seem to like
 Beta Centauri, a startup targeting battlefield medical products us.
 Riverwood Solutions, a global supply chain solutions company
I can not say enough about the value
of services and the highest caliper of
expertise Zebulon Solutions provided.
Their team of highly qualified personnel
helped make any challenge we faced
seem so easily resolved, I would never
hesitate including them in the future.
Zebulon
Solutions, LLC Maureen

15. Contact info
Keith Howard: keith@zebulonsolutions.com
Chuck Hodges: chuck@zebulonsolutions.com
Check out our blogs
Zebulon’s Thoughts
Productization
www.zebulonsolutions.com
Zebulon
Solutions, LLC

16. Thanks a million!
Ya’ll have a nice day.
Zebulon
Solutions, LLC

17. Product Design
Zebulon Solutions provides product design services across multiple
design disciplines to its customers, from concept through end of
life.
 Concept Design
 Product Development
 Product Iterations
 Point Design Services
Zebulon
Solutions, LLC

18. Concept Design
Zebulon Solutions can help define product concepts that will be
cost effective and manufacturable
 Feasibility studies
 Proof of concept prototypes
 Product architectures
 Target BOM generation
 Product cost estimates
 Supply chain investigations
Zebulon
Solutions, LLC

19. Product Development
Zebulon Solutions can provide full turnkey product development or
work in conjunction with internal resources or other partners to
provide complete solutions
 Mechanical design
 Electrical design
 Software and firmware development
 System design
 Design verification and validation
 Tool design and management
 Supply chain development
 DFx *
* Design for manufacturing / assembly /
supply chain / test / environment / tooling /
cost / etc.
Zebulon
Solutions, LLC

20. Product Iterations
Zebulon Solutions often helps our customers to leverage their
design resources by taking on redesigns and product iterations,
freeing up internal resources for next generation products
 Cost reduction redesigns
 Redesigns to get around component EOL
 Feature enhancement redesigns
 Software upgrades
Zebulon
Solutions, LLC

21. Point Design Services
In addition to doing turnkey hardware, software and / or
mechanical design, we can also provide a wide variety of point
design services through our network of subcontractors and
partners, including:
 Industrial design
 Schematic capture
 PCB Layout
 Quick-turn prototypes
 Software development
 Firmware development
 Tooling
 Test fixtures
We program manage these services for you to ensure quality
Zebulon
Solutions, LLC

22. Design Disciplines
Electrical System Engineering
System Architecture Requirements Capture
Component Selection Solution Ideation
Circuit Design and Schematic Capture Design Specifications
PCB Layout Test Methodology and Planning
Prototype PCBA Builds Verification and Validation
Board Checkout Design For Cost, Manufacturability
Mechanical Software / Firmware
Part Breakout and Stack up High Level Design
Materials and Component Selection User Interface Scenarios
3D and 2D Cad Design Detailed Design
Tolerance Analysis Language Selection, Environment Setup
Mockup and Pre-production Build Code Implementation and Test
Tooling Support Embedded and Web Services
System Integration
Zebulon
Solutions, LLC

23. Analysis Services
Zebulon Solutions provides a broad spectrum of design and engineering
analysis services to complement product design activities and allow for
data driven decisions
 Feasibility study
 Design assessment
 DFx review
• Design for manufacturing (DFM)
• Design for test (DFT)
• Design for assembly (DFA)
• Design for environmental compliance (DFE)
o RoHS, WEE etc
• Deign for supply chain
• Design for tooling
• Design for total cost
 Design Failure Mode Effect Analysis (DFMEA)
 Geometric Design and Tolerancing (GD&T) analysis
Zebulon
Solutions, LLC

24. Industrialization
Industrialization:
 Setting up production infrastructure, processes and equipment to enable the successful
launch of a new product concept and turning it into a production stable product
Industrialization tasks include:
This is also not as simple as it
 DFx review and feedback on product design sounds, and it doesn’t sound
simple
 Selection and qualification of contract manufacturer
 Supply chain optimization
 Tool design, manufacture and validation
 Production test development
 Manufacturing process development
 Design and build custom manufacturing fixtures and equipment
 DVT: conduct design validation and regulatory testing
 Defining quality plan and processes
 Transferring product from NPI to production site
While industrialization is commonly viewed as the back end of the product
development life cycle, it needs to start at the same time as the design
Zebulon
Solutions, LLC

25. Test Development
Engineering verification test (EVT) development
• Develop test procedures, fixtures, software and simulated loads to enable the iterative
testing of early engineering prototypes
Design validation test development (DVT) development
 Develop test procedures, fixtures, custom equipment and simulated loads to enable final
validation testing of the product against functional and regulatory specifications
 DVT by definition requires prototypes from the final, frozen design including tooling, but
pre testing is often used to minimize risk
Production test development
 Develop test processes, fixtures,
equipment and software
• Process test
• Functional test
• Parametric test
• Out of box or other QA audit testing
While EVT, DVT and production test all have separate and distinct
requirements, there are synergies and reuse opportunities as the product life
cycle progresses.
Zebulon
Solutions, LLC

26. Program Management
Program Management is the cornerstone of our service offering
 When we say “Program Management” we really mean “Portfolio, Program and
Project Management” but that’s a mouth-full
Not someone two years removed from the
Program Management services college beer-pong team
 Direct management of programs
• Give us your toughest programs or your overflow
• Either way we’ll assign a seasoned veteran and provide proven processes
o which to us means someone who has done this too many times to count
o Zebulon provides program management support specific to your product needs and
aligns them to your product team only for the length of time you need them.
• We go where you don’t want to and get your product into production.
• From Concept to Product Launch! We have the experience.
 Program Management Office
• We can provide your in-house program managers with a PMBOK based system
• Includes reviews, mentoring, portfolio data and statistics ,oversight, post mortems, more
• We can even help you set up your own PMO
o It’s not easy (we know—we’ve done it) but the ROI can be excellent long term
Zebulon
Solutions, LLC

27. Fractional Productization Executives
Zebulon Solutions provides seasoned operational and technical executives
to start ups on a fractional and / or interim basis
• Contrary to popular myth, it is often difficult for start ups to attract top talent
• Many startups have excellent marketing and business teams but weak in engineering
and / or operations
• Even teams with strong engineering talent often lack the skills needed to lead the
transition from the early R&D phase to the sustainable production phase
• Often our customers have talented teams but who are perhaps lacking in experience of
getting products into production.
Actual examples of Zebulon Solutions fractional executive program:
• Fractional VP of Engineering to drive industrialization
• Interim COO to set up contract manufacturing and supply chain
• Interim VP of Engineering to assess design tactics and strategy
• Fractional Director of Firmware Development to drive firmware optimization
• Fractional, interim CFO to drive set up of inventory management systems
Zebulon
Solutions, LLC

28. Business Consulting
Zebulon Solutions can help you manage your business better
 Cash flow
• Cash is king for all businesses, small and large, but while most business owners understand
their P&Ls, many do not understand fully where their cash goes
o Common cash hogs are inventory and accounts receivable
o Businesses that are growing quickly can be very profitable yet have negative cash flows
• We can help you set up balance sheet and cash flow forecasts linked to your P&L, analyze
where your cash goes and offer ways to improve your cash flow
 ROI analysis
• All business decisions should be made based on Return on Investment analysis.
o Are you doing this today? If not you should be.
• In particular IRR is a very effective tool for looking at the return on a series of investments
and the result cash flows
o IRR (Internal Rate of Return) is the inverse function of NPV (Net Present Value) on a set of
cash flows Let us provide you with an independent,
 Risk analysis unbiased view.
• Risk needs to be factored into all business decisions, but is often ignored
• Common risks which are often not fully considered include:
Zebulon o Warranty (are you reserving enough?); IPR indemnification; product liability; AR default
Solutions, LLC

29. Possible Productization Offerings
We can do as much or as little as makes sense. Suggestions:
 End to end program management
• We’ll take the high level program management role for the product from concept to stable
production. No one does this better.
 Concept studies
• You provide the brilliant technology idea and market data
• We’ll turn that technology into a product concept, with estimates of full development costs,
risks and schedule as well as target BOMs, supply chain and manufacturing solutions
 Point solutions
• We can help you get prototypes built, find a test lab, solve your pack-out problem, etc
• We have contractors who can write software and firmware; design enclosures; build and
test out breadboards; do schematics and PCB layout; and validate your product
 Industrialization
• We can fully develop your supply chain; help you choose a manufacturing partner; set up
special processes; bring up your product at the manufacturing site and qualify your process
 Test development
• Develop a full test plan including design validation test, production test, and outgoing QA
o Write, debug and validate custom test software and integrate with the test hardware
Zebulon o Design, build, validate and deploy custom test systems and fixtures
Solutions, LLC

30. Zebulon Solutions Product Life Cycle
Program Management
Concept Design Validation
Prototyping
Industrialization Stable Production
Zebulon Solutions uses a modified phase-gate Product Life Cycle
 Phases
• Concept: Ideation, feasibility analysis, and proof-of-concept prototypes
• Design: Detailed design and verification
• Prototyping: Building engineering and validation prototypes
• Validation: Testing the design to prove adherence to all specifications and requirements
• Industrialization: Develop and validate supply chain, tooling, test, manufacturing process
• Program Management: Manage all aspects and resources of all phases of the program
 Phase-gates
• The end of each phase is demarked by a phase-gate
 Concurrency
• While some of the phases are in series, a substantial amount of parallelism is required
Zebulon
Solutions, LLC

31. Our Team
We have a rapidly growing stable of independent contractors who
work with us as needed and are dedicated to getting the job done
• We stand behind the work of all our contractors.
• Weekly reviews with you on your programs keep you up to date.
 Most of our contractors have at  Our contractors cover many different
least 15 years industry experience: disciplines
o Medical o Hardware design
o Electronics o Software / Firmware
o Consumer o Mechanical design and tooling
o Environmental o Chemistry and Physics
o Mil / Aero o Test development
o Clean-Tech o Supply Chain
o Computers o Business
o Telecom o Program Management
o Ranching o Intellectual Property Rights
Seriously…
Zebulon
Solutions, LLC

32. Our Pedigree
We’re a start-up company, but our management
team has 75 years of productization and
business experience, and our team of
contractors have 100s of years
Some notable achievements:
 Productization of the original PalmPilot
 Developed and deployed over 500 test fixtures and
systems for the Xbox
 Complete design, industrialization, and tooling of the
Whirlpool dryer console
 Concept and prototype design of the first Microsoft
Tablet PC reference design
 Management of development and system integration
of North Atlantic Air Traffic Control Voice
Communication system installed in Reykjavik, Iceland
Zebulon
Solutions, LLC

33. Act Local, Think Global
Just because we’re old-fashioned folks
from a small town in Colorado doesn’t
mean we’re not global.
 If the right answer is design in India and
production in Poland we’ll make that
happen. Been there, done that.
 We’ve also done it in the USA, Canada,
Mexico, Germany, Hungary, Austria,
Sweden, Norway, the UK, Singapore,
Thailand, South Africa, France, Malaysia,
Japan, India and let’s not forget CHINA.
 We get on airplanes so you don’t have to.
Zebulon
Solutions, LLC

34. Our Humble Abode
Visit our office and lab near downtown Berthoud
 500 square feet, not including the out-house Just kidding about the
out-house
 Our office is above a coffee roaster
• Seriously. We don’t have a flat-screen TV in the lobby or a corporate jet—heck we don’t
even have carpet—but we do have the best coffee. Stop by and have a cup.
• We’ve got an electronics lab, high speed internet access and a closet full of cool products
• We can see the Colorado Rockies from our office window
o The mountains, not the baseball team
Visit us at our internet home: www.zebulonsolutions.com
• Find out the latest information on Zebulon Solutions
• Browse expert information on productization
• Check out our blogs:
Zebulon’s Thoughts
On Productization
• Find us on Facebook
• We like to be liked
Zebulon
Solutions, LLC

35. Berthoud, CO
Zebulon
Solutions, LLC