The Big Decision: Make or Buy?

The market need has been identified, the business case has been justified, and the engineering team has determined that GPS (GNSS) receiver technology needs to be designed-in to provide tracking, location or timing functionality to the product in addressing the market and user requirement. This being the case, the engineer is faced with the interesting dilemma of determining the most effective path to proceed along in design-in of GPS technology on the device. The options available are quite straight-forward, but the better appropriate choice from these two possible paths to success involves some consideration of a number of factors, as well as an appreciation of the bigger picture in terms of what the organization wants to achieve with the finished product.

Firstly, the choices: The good news is that there are just two possible paths to take. The not so good news is that these paths don't run side by side, and the considerations and implications of taking one are quite substantial when compared with taking the other. The first option is to design-in a chipset developed by a GPS technology company (e.g. CSR, ublox). The second option is to consider designing in a complete GPS receiver module sub-system which has already integrated the GPS technology chipset as an optimally functioning "GPS engine" onboard the module.

So it comes the time to decide on the better path to take in integrating GPS receiver capability into the engineers' product design. As the functionality and performance is predetermined by the capabilities of the GPS chipset (e.g. CSR's SiRFstarIV chipset technology enables optimal performance in harsh operating environments, while maintaining the capability to operate in low power modes), this level of performance is given and not compromised whatsoever regardless of whether it is a GPS chipset or module integration strategy that is being adopted. Therefore, there are three key factors that need to be considered in determining whether a chipset or module integration approach is more appropriate, as follows:

1. Time To Market

As a GPS module has, by its very nature, already resolved all chipset design integration issues, the engineer can be confident that by placing the module on their main board, getting power to it and designing a trace to an appropriate antenna solution, the GPS receiver will function as intended. In fact, with GPS antenna modules being widely used, including the Maestro Wireless A2035-H, antenna matching issues have already being resolved, and therefore design-in of the module is very efficient. Designing-in a chipset from scratch is somewhat more complicated and time-consuming, as the layout of all the componentry needed around the GPS chipset itself needs to be carefully considered. Typically, a GPS module design can be integrated into a product design in a period of 1~12 weeks, whereas a chipset integration effort often takes 6~18 months, depending on complexity of the application, and field trials required of the final product.

If the end product is sensitive to catching market timing, a GPS module integration strategy may make most sense, whereas if there is no great urgency in getting the product to market, the chipset integration approach may be given due consideration.

2. Available Engineering Resources

Typically GPS chipset technology providers are reluctant to dedicate vast engineering resources towards a new product design, unless there is an assurance of reasonably high volumes (usually 200K+ is a good guideline entry point) when the finished product is available to the market. The other side of the same coin is that organizations designing these products need to decide how much engineering resources, in time and money, to dedicate to a new product development in advance of receiving potential revenues from a successful new product launch.

Oftentimes, the most prudent strategy from a business perspective is to get a new product design completed and tested efficiently by employing a GPS module. At this point the product can be launched on the target market and its future potential in terms of success in the market can be determined in a short timeframe, thereby enabling the organization to determine return on investment on this new product development.

3. Cost

As the GPS module development cost has been incurred in designing a complete GPS receiver sub-system, and all necessary components have been designed-in on the module, there is an additional cost in buying the GPS module versus its corresponding chipset. It is worthwhile for the engineer designing the product to compare total cost of designing in a GPS chipset or module, taking a number of considerations into account, including total Bill of Materials, development and validation costs, and opportunity cost in getting a quality product to market in an appropriate timeframe.

The "Make or Buy" decision on integrating GPS technology may sound like a daunting proposition, but by carefully evaluating the impact on your business of these three factors, Market Timing, Engineering Resources and Cost, this will hopefully make your path forward clear. In addition, it is helpful to speak with both GPS chipset and module providers to get an additional sense of which approach is the better fit for you in the integration of GPS capability into your new product design.