Earlier this year, I was invited along with some colleagues to a manufacturer’s facility to tour their plant, see their offices and get a sneak-peek at a product they were about to unveil. They wanted to know our impressions and gauge our opinion on how the product might do.

Without revealing the name of the company, suffice it to say they came up with a new take on a product, a new way of looking at a problem and a simple, effective way to solve that problem. When you see the product, you can’t believe how simple it is, but it works. Let’s just say it makes things quieter.

It’s quite a privilege to get an inside look at a product before it goes to market. There’s obviously a lot of excitement  because no matter how well a manufacturer might think it will do, the real test is conducted out in the world, where technicians order parts from jobbers.

What I took back from the experience is just how quickly the automotive aftermarket moves in getting a product to market. The manufacturer had only been working on the product for a period of months before we visited their offices. From research and development to production and finally getting feedback from jobber stores, it’s been far less than two years.

So, what’s the verdict? Early word from several jobbers around the country is that product is moving, really moving. Why? Because it works and it produces new revenues for both jobbers and repair shops. This isn’t merely an improvement on an old product. With the company attacking an old problem in a new way, a new category of product has essentially been created.
Even with the advent of computer modeling of products, it can still take a few years to get an item to market. So to see an aftermarket product get to market so quickly and satisfy both the customers and their end-users – the motoring public – is pretty incredible.