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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY a summary of our mission, vision and purpose.
PRODUCTS & SERVICES what is the product and service that we’ll be selling.
TARGET MARKET
who we are targeting the product and service at.
MARKETING PLAN
how we intend on marketing our business.
COMPETITORS
who do we expect to compete for business with.
SWOT ANALYSIS
An analysis of our strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
HUMAN RESOURCES
What sort of employees would we need in order to succeed.
OPERATIONS AND LOGISTICS
A look into the production, payment and suppliers that would be required.
FINANCIAL PROJECTIONS
What will the costs and price be for the products, what will the margins be.
FUTURE TRENDS
What may happen in the future that would influence the business.
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Our Mission Our mission at CANVAS is to provide innovative solutions to the prosthetics industry.
Our Vision Canvas aims to change the way prosthetics are viewed and give the wearer more control over what they wear. By embracing 3D printing we can truly test new boundaries in prosthetic design.
Our Purpose Canvas provides amputees with the opportunity to design their own prosthetic limb based on their natural arm shape, using 3D printing and the online limb builder.
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PRODUCTS & SERVICES CANVAS are going to be selling both a product and a service. The product will be the 3D printed arm, which includes panels, inner core, wrist and elbow joint. This will not be available to directly purchase from CANVAS as it would still need fitting amongst other fitting procedures. This will be the responsibility of the prosthetic clinics who choose to provide CANVAS limbs. The clinics who wish to provide their customers with the limbs must also pay a subscription fee in order to use the product. The panels can differ greatly from customer, depending on ergonomic factors like arm length and shape. Then there is options with panel patterns, colour and material. The service allows the customer to fully express themselves.
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CANVAS.COM
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TA R G E T M A R K E T The Market Our market is both businesses and individuals, as mentioned earlier in the plan, the service is marketed towards clinics who will pay a subscription fee in order to offer our prosthetics. The product is marketed towards individual amputees. Initially the product is only available to above elbow amputee’s however this is something we would like to expand and one day offer to more amputees as we feel it is easily scalable. Customers will be largely based in the U.K. However, this may also lead to the customer base growing to Europe and then potentially worldwide. They will be prompted to buy from CANVAS because there is simply no one else in the UK who offers this sort of unique customised limb. Market Research Key findings from desk research: There are a few other manufacturers of 3d printed custom prosthetics (often called fairings as they are not the limb itself but coverings) these are based across the atlantic, only offering leg coverings and do not provide the same level of customer control over the design. Often after amputation, the amputee will want to replace the lost limb visually. So they get something that looks as similar as possible, however after awhile they will realise they can’t replace it and begin to look at it in another perspective 8
Key findings from field research: Amputees dislike their ugly and uncomfortable prosthetics. They feel physically attached to it but not emotionally. Steampunk style seems quite popular because it shows an embracing of the mechanical aspects of having a prosthetic. All potential customers consulted said that they would feel comfortable designing their own with the help of someone. Industry experts who were consulted mentioned that it would be difficult to get prosthetists to change their current practices as it has been done in a certain way for quite some time. They also like to keep it as simple as possible, and the change wouldn’t be so simple for them. Target Market Example
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Lost a limb during a climbing accident, he immediately went on to have a life like prosthetic limb fitted. As time progressed, Scott grew accustomed to having a missing limb, he wanted to embrace it rather than hide it. Thats where CANVAS comes in. It allows Scott all the functionality that he had with his previous prosthetic while also allowing him to express himself in whatever ways he can imagine. 9
MARKETING PLAN As the market is quite a small niche market we will have to use a hybrid marketing strategy consisting of various other strategies, including: PR Because of the medical aspect of the offered product we could get some very worthwhile free PR that would revolve around the feel good aspect of the product. Advantages: Free. Would increase our profile and result in more sales.
Print advertising A few spreads in targeted disability magazines (e.g. Disability UK) will help in getting early exposure of the product. By using this sparingly (due to costs) we will have to rely on other marketing in order to truly convert readers into sales. Advantages: Will reach a lot of people. You can target particular people.
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Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) Getting the website higher up on Googles rankings when searching for prosthetics and other key words. In conjection with the website, this would be the most important part of marketing as it is where potential customers can get all the information. Advantages: Reasonably cheap. Can reach many people. People are more likely to buy if they searched for you.
USP A successful USP promises a clearly articulated benefit to consumers, offers them something that competitive products can’t or don’t offer, and is compelling enough to attract new customers “Prosthetics designed by you.”
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COMPETITORS
Bespoke Innovations Bespoke Innovations apply good industrial design and rapid prototyping techniques to make beautiful prosthetics They interview amputees, find out what makes them tick, and design some really nice custom limbs based on their interests and tastes. Based in San Francisco, Bespoke are the company who are most similar to CANVAS, however due to their location it is unlikey for them to compete.
Alleles Design Studio A fairly new company from Canada, they create similar products to Bespoke Innovations. However, their approach although similar does have one big difference. They don’t design custom pieces, they are custom fit but not designed. They are also far cheaper than Bespoke. Again due to location and also because they don’t really deal in customisable limbs let alone customisable arms they wouldn’t be much competition to CANVAS.
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The Alternative Limb Project The alternative limb project applies an artistic approach to prosthetic limb design, seeking to create unique and personalized prosthetic limbs for amputees. Based in London, it is the only UK based customisable prosthetics. The AltLimb Project is probably the closest competitor who do something similar. Sophie’s work is a lot more artistic and is done on a one by one basis.
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S W O T A N A LY S I S Strengths There is simply no other product or service like this in the world right now. It is truly unique and offers something which many amputees have expressed an interest in.
Weaknesses By only creating prosthetic limbs for above elbow amputees there is only a very small market. We must progress quickly to expand into others.
Opportunity There is opportunity to further the 3d printing prosthetics movement which is currently gathering pace. Also CANVAS could move into producing other prosthetics using the same principles, potentially even casts used for broken bones.
Threats Due to operating within a niche market, there are potential problems of under exposure, a lack of sales resulting in tight profit margins.
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HUMAN RESOURCES On startup we feel that CANVAS can survive with a minimum of 2 employees. This is due to the number of sales that could be expected and also due to the highly automated aspect of the service. The skills required initially would be someone with CAD modelling skills and someone with web development skills. The CAD specialist would work on the 3D scans and artwork we receive and turn them into viable panels. The web developer would work on the CANVAS website and developer the online app that allows them to customise panels. The skills required initially would be someone with CAD modelling skills and someone with web development skills. The CAD specialist would work on the 3D scans and artwork we receive and turn them into viable panels. The web developer would work on the CANVAS website and developer the online app that allows them to customise panels. In future, were CANVAS to expand we would require more CAD modelers to deal with the influx of scans and panels. Also employing someone with artistic experience who could create the ‘prestyled panels’
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O P E R AT I O N S & L O G I S T I C S Production Production of the panels will be in house done on CANVAS’s 3D printers. This can allow us to ensure they are finished to the best of standards and are as the customer requested them to be. Other parts such as the inner tubes, wrist and elbow joints can all be outsourced in order to reduce costs. As these items will likely be produced in only a few different sizes and are less customisable. Suppliers After some research it seems that 3DFilaPrint is the best supplier for abs filament. A 1KG spool of black abs costs £18.75 and they offer various incentives/discounts for larger orders.
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Payment & Delivery Payment will not be directly through the CANVAS website as there is other stages involved. Customers will pay at the clinic, which will get sent to us. We will then securely deliver the product to the prosthetic clinic where they will be fitted to the customer. Equipment CANVAS would require a 3d printer which has a large build envelope, this means that the cheapest options would not be the most viable. The Gigabot 3d printer has a large build envelope (600mm x 600mm x 600mm) and comes in at costing ÂŁ3500. To start with it would be reasonable to expect that just one Gigabot printer would suffice in providing us with what we need.
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FINANCIAL PROJECTIONS Cost and Pricing Strategy Financial projections are quite hard for such a small niche market, however below I have covered in as much detail as currently possible.: At roughly £20/kg, ABS is roughly £0.04/cm3. The panels will usually be under 100cm3. As an example for costing I’ve used the existing panels I’ve created, which came out as 82cm3. Therefore to print such an item it would cost £1.64 The other parts, inner core, wrist joint and elbow joint will all be outsourced. The costing of these is assumed to be around £1.50 per part. This could potentially be lower, but due to volume of the order it is difficult to calculate exactly. This brings the cost per part to £6.14. A relatively low cost. However this is decieving because it is not material cost that will be a big factor, as each piece will have to be worked on individually by a CAD modeller and this will bring up the cost as a business for each part. So if we factor in 3 hours worth of CAD modeling (once the framework is up and running there is very minimal actual CAD work to be done) at £12per hour =£36 Total cost = £42.14 20
Product/Service name Number of units Product/service components Component cost Total product/service cost Cost per unit Price per unit Profit margin (£) Profit margin (%) Markup (%)
CANVAS 300 Arm + Website £42 + £60 £12660 £42.20 £350 £307.80 87% 729%
The number of units is based on the yearly upper body amputations in the UK. Also including the few extra who currently have had amputations and would wish to get a CANVAS limb. If CANVAS was to meet those goals of unit numbers then we would be expecting a revenue of around £105,000. These figures also do not include the sale of the CANVAS service to existing clinics, this would obviously be subject to interest how we would aim to offer this service at a reasonable price of £240 per year. Other things to note would be: the purchase of the 3D printer, this cost will heavily affect first year finances. Also the cost of renting a space for the office and manufacturing, this along with bills, taxes and insurance will all reduce the net income for CANVAS. 21
FUTURE TRENDS 3D Printing The boom in 3D printing has seen a rise in customisable products and an increase in basic understanding of CAD too. If this continues and 3D printing only becomes cheaper, then that can only be a good thing for businesses such as CANVAS. One of the areas that is benefitting from 3D printing is open source prosthetics. The website ‘Thingiverse’ is full of prosthetic hands (such as the flexy hand) and arms that people are free to print, or design upon themselves. The open source prosthetics are currently more focused on mechanical aspects, and giving people cheaper prosthetics. Maybe in the future with the help of CANVAS we can merge these with beautifully designed prosthetics, that people will have complete control of. Myoelectric Hands The concept of the current popular mechanical hand has been unchanged for decades. However, we are starting to see myoelectric hands. The amputee’s nerve endings are rewired and then sensors are placed on these which control functions of the hand. The idea behind CANVAS is one that could easily be transferable to work with these hands. The internal space inside the inner tube would be ideal for the sensor cables.
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Body Parts Why stop at above elbow amputees? There are over 20 different types of amputations. CANVAS could be altered and applied to many, if not all of these. The obvious easy choice would be below elbow and leg amputations. But what about customisable fingers, feet or even an ear? This is all possible with CANVAS and 3D printing.
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