When Everything Falls into Pitfalls: From Prototypes to Manufacturing

Hardware gets real in manufacturing. Join Maeva Schaller, Head of Operations EU at Pilotfish, as she shares hard-won lessons from more than 15 years in hardware development.

Maeva specializes in strategic concept development, project planning, and transitioning concepts into manufacturing. She has managed projects compliant with ISO9001:2015 and ISO13485:2016 standards, contributed to the Electrolux innovation team, and collaborated with clients such as Ledvance, Siemens, and numerous startups.

What To Expect:

• A practical walkthrough from late prototype to mass production.
• DFM/DFX essentials, pilot runs (EVT/DVT/PVT), and phase gates that keep risk in check.

What You’ll Learn:

• Identify and avoid common pitfalls in tooling, sourcing, and ramp-up.

• Build a manufacturing plan with clear gates, metrics, and ownership.
• Balance cost, lead time, and quality while staying audit- and regulator-ready.

Who Should Join:
Founders, operations leads, hardware PMs and engineers, and supply-chain managers preparing for—or struggling with—the leap to manufacturing.

About the Event:

This event is part of the workshop series "Product Development That Works", presented by Lemberg Solutions and Pilotfish, and hosted by MotionLab.Berlin.

The series covers the full product development journey—from validating feasibility and building MVPs/PoCs to setting up secure development processes and preparing for mass manufacturing. Attendees will also learn how to integrate human factor engineering, manage hardware and software development, and avoid critical pitfalls at every stage.

Check the full workshop series overview here.