Each client and project are always a little different but typically the process is:
1. Initial meeting for introductions and to discuss what it is that you need.
2. Budgetary pricing to give you an idea of what level of investment (and remember that it is an investment, not a cost) you could expect.
3. If the pricing roughly fits within your expectations and you want to go to the next step, then a detailed specification or scope of works document will be created for you, along with a more refined quotation.
4. If the quotation is accepted, then work will generally commence with schematics, PCB layouts and prototype units.
5. If firmware/software is needed then this usually starts when the prototypes are made.
6. There may be more iterations (or none) depending on the level of project complexity.
7. The next stage, and one of the most important, is testing the product. We generally do this in-house and may create custom fixtures and software to help. Compliance testing may also be part of this stage.
8. When the development process is nearing completion, the next phase is moving to production. The planning aspect of this stage is very important and should be started long before the development phase is complete. The production hand over also usually requires extra test fixtures and sometimes software, which we can develop in-house.
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As a general rule, if your product is currently selling in volumes of greater than 10k per year, then yes it may make sense to manufacture in countries such as China, but if not then there may be a compelling business case to manufacture in Australia. Some of the advantages of manufacturing with Rapid are:
1. Lead time. ResearchX manufactures prototypes in days (not weeks from China), and volume production in weeks, (not months from China).
2. Less hassle associated with dealing with someone that you can talk to face to face.
3. Control over where components are sourced from.
4. A higher level of priority and service. Even volumes of 10k per year is a small run for most Chinese manufacturers and you may not get the level of service that you need

Our piece price may be a little higher than what might be quoted from a foreign country, but the overall cost to you could be less than an imported product, when consideration is given to:
1. Shipping costs.
2. Import duty.
3. Cost of travelling overseas to visit suppliers.
4. Exchange rate variations.
5. Costs relating to quality issues.
6. Lead times.

We use the latest version of Eagle CAD and Altium Designer (previously known as Protel).