Success – BOB Trailers
BOB Trailers
Location: Boise, Idaho – Ada County
Situation
In 1991, in San Luis Obispo, CA, Roger Malinowski met Philip Novotny who had turned a decrepit beach cruiser bike into a versatile, single-track bike trailer. Roger knew a great idea when he saw it, and together they turned the invention into a revolution that became the Beast of Burden Company or BOB.
In 2006, attracted by a favorable business climate and a lifestyle conducive to its philosophy, BOB moved its corporate offices to Boise where most of the employees ride their bikes to work and sometimes take a new stroller or trailer idea home for a little product testing.
BOB Trailers Inc. is focused on producing high-quality baby jogging strollers and bicycle trailers at a competitive price. The company employs 25 people, from high school graduates in the warehouse to product development specialists with advanced degrees in engineering. Because of its small size and the technical nature of its products, the company looked to TechHelp to help augment its engineering expertise and speed new products to market.
Solution
- BOB relied on TechHelp staff and resources at the New Product Development Lab at Boise State’s College of Engineering to accelerate product development projects.
- BOB worked with TechHelp on a research project that correlated strength parameters of SLA materials to nylon allowing BOB to use inexpensive prototype parts in strength testing.
- TechHelp did product design work for BOB that led to successful final designs and drawings. This work gave student engineers at Boise State valuable experience in the product development process and helped BOB get to know and hire talented young engineers.
Results
BOB’s work with TechHelp helped the company produce the following impact:
- Retained sales of $10,000
- Retained two employees due to sales retention
- Cost savings of $347,600
- Improved workforce practices led to $1000 in savings
- Investment in product development was $332,00
- BOB hired two TechHelp student employees who graduated from the Boise State University College of Engineering
“TechHelp has been a valuable asset to our business model. The organization has helped BOB Trailers improve in many ways and has certainly provided a stimulus to the economy by helping us shorten our product development cycle and speed new products to market.”
Mike Baughnam
Technical Director
BOB Trailers, Inc.
