Turn-Key Product Development

From napkin sketch to production units — CLI Systems designs, builds, and manufactures your electronic product so you can focus on selling it.

Start a Project

The Turn-Key Model

We absorb the engineering costs. You pay per unit.

Traditional Contract Engineering

  • Upfront and ongoing engineering fees
  • Separate vendors for hardware, firmware, manufacturing
  • You manage the coordination
  • Uncertain total cost until production
  • Risk sits with you

CLI Systems Turn-Key

  • No ongoing engineering costs
  • One team: hardware, firmware, and manufacturing
  • We manage everything
  • Known per-unit price from the start
  • Risk is shared — we succeed when you ship

How It Works

A proven four-phase process that takes your idea from concept to production

1

Concept

We work with you to define what the product needs to do, who it's for, and what constraints matter. This phase ends with a clear specification and a go/no-go decision.

You Decide

  • Core features and requirements
  • Target unit cost and volume
  • Timeline priorities

Results

  • Technical feasibility assessment
  • Architecture and component selection
  • Per-unit engineering unit price
  • Per-unit production unit price estimate
Deliverable A signed-off product specification and a fixed per-unit production price estimate.
2

Engineering Units

First working hardware. These are functional boards with initial firmware — enough to validate the design, test interfaces, and prove the concept works in the real world.

You Decide

  • Feature priority for first build
  • Test scenarios and acceptance criteria
  • Enclosure and form factor direction

Results

  • Schematic and PCB layout
  • Assembled and tested boards
  • Baseline firmware with core functionality
  • Refined per-unit production unit price
Deliverable Working engineering units with baseline firmware. Reliable per-unit production pricing.
3

Prototype Units

Refined hardware with production-intent firmware. These units go to your beta testers or pilot customers. We incorporate feedback from engineering units and lock down the design.

You Decide

  • Beta test group and deployment plan
  • Final feature set
  • Certification requirements

Results

  • Revised PCB with fixes from engineering build
  • Production-intent firmware
  • Enclosure integration and test fixtures
  • Final per-unit production unit price
Deliverable Refined prototype units and firmware, manufacturing plan, and initial test fixtures.
4

Production

Manufacturing at volume. You order units, we build and ship them. Ongoing firmware updates and hardware revisions as your product evolves.

You Decide

  • Order quantities and schedule
  • Feature roadmap for future releases
  • Support and warranty scope

Results

  • Manufactured, tested, and packaged units
  • Production firmware with OTA update capability
  • Ongoing engineering support
Deliverable Volume-manufactured, tested, and packaged units ready to ship to your customers.

Industries We Serve

Organized by the problems we solve, not just the markets we know

Monitoring & Control

Products that sense, measure, and act on the physical world — temperature controllers, environmental monitors, industrial automation panels.

Connected Devices

Products that need to talk to the cloud, a commercial device, or each other — IoT gateways, wireless sensors, BLE-enabled equipment.

Safety & Compliance

Products where reliability isn't optional — medical devices, safety interlocks, alcohol monitoring systems, access control.

Test & Measurement

Products that need precision — custom test fixtures, data acquisition systems, calibration equipment.

Selected Projects

Real products taken from idea to manufacturing

Industrial Controls

Control Panel Product

Situation: A manufacturer needed a new control panel for their new equipment. No existing product on the market met their requirements of RGB LEDs with a Modbus RTU RS485 connection, and they had no in-house electronics team.

Outcome: Initial engineering units delivered in 30 days from first conversation. Through the process, CLI assisted with creating a mass produced project. Final iteration is now in production with ongoing firmware updates.

30 days to engineering units
Motor Control

EOL Motor Controller Replacement

Situation: A client's legacy motor control board reached end-of-life. They needed a drop-in replacement that was pin-compatible, offered higher efficiency, and communicated over their existing legacy serial bus — all without changing the rest of their system.

Outcome: We reverse-engineered the original, designed a modern replacement, and manufactured it to their exact footprint. Over 1000 units have shipped with no system changes required by the client.

1000+ units shipped

Start a Project

Tell us about your product idea and we'll follow up with a free feasibility assessment