Is the answer you need not published anywhere yet?
Feasibility studies, prototypes, measurement, and modelling — work whose outcome is knowledge rather than a product. The deliverable is a defensible answer, including when the answer is no.
The problem
A decision is waiting on a question nobody can answer from experience: whether a sensor can resolve the signal at all, whether a process can be modelled well enough to control, whether an approach scales past the demo. Without research the decision gets made on optimism, and the expensive version of the experiment happens in production.
How we approach it
We write the question down precisely, including what result would settle it either way, before any building starts. Then we design the cheapest experiment that can produce that result — a prototype, a measurement campaign, a numerical model — and we run it with enough rigour that the numbers can be trusted: calibration, controls, uncertainty stated. The report says what was found, how confident we are, and what it would take to be more confident.
Worked example
Can a low-cost sensor detect the fault before it matters?
A manufacturer wanted to know whether inexpensive vibration sensors could catch bearing wear on their machines early enough to schedule maintenance, or whether only the expensive instruments would do. We instrumented four machines with both, logged six weeks of data, and built a model of the wear signature. The cheap sensors detected the fault in three of four cases, on average eleven days before failure — but missed the fourth entirely because of where it was mounted. The answer was yes, with a specific mounting rule and a stated miss rate, which was enough to justify the rollout and to define what the rollout had to include.
What you get
- A precise statement of the question and what result would settle it
- The experiment, prototype, or model, built to a standard the numbers can bear
- A report with findings, uncertainty, and the next step — whichever way it points
- The data, code, and instruments, so the work can be repeated or extended