Taking the cell phone example, the trouble I see with such a format is the storyline drifts towards the people using the cell phone (product) and not the engineers, when the intent was to focus on the engineers in the first place.

Another problem is any decently built product has more than a few main players. You might have whole teams designing each component or taking over a certain design step, like the board layout. Most shows I've seen focus on a handful of people. It would be impossible to get everybody in, and it would be boring just to focus on the team deciding the color of the case. ("Red! Green! No, it should be blue!")

It would be more realistic to have 5 managers as the main characters. Notice I didn't say it would be exciting. But let's run with it a moment.

5 managers, each of whom has 2-4 direct reports. The reporting structure is fairly flat; I'm sure the CEO is lurking around here somewhere. This leaves a cozy company of about 20 people.

One team does sales and marketing, one does case design and human interaction, one does the software, and one does the circuitry, leaving one team open. How about reducing the number of teams by two and replacing them with individuals: a sales/marketing person, an HR person, a clerk, and an accountant. I don't think such a small company would have its own lawyer.

It would be more interesting to have each episode be self-contained, with a new product every episode. Needless to say, our employees are exhausted. Clearly this is a private company.

Oh, I know, they would manufacture toys. Those annoying electronic computerized toys that make a lot of noise. Those should be sufficiently different to make each episode interesting. A heart monitor or cell phone requires more than 20 people.