Companies are struggling to integrate separate segments of product development, such as design, engineering, manufacturing, and even supply chain management. The goal: improved efficiency, quality, and speed to market.
MCAD applications such as Alibre Design (pictured) "link design engineers with their counterparts in manufacturing for input during the design process," states Greg Milliken, vp of sales and marketing at Alibre Inc. Connecting design to the front and back office, and all aspects of logistics, remains problematic. "These implementations are still too complex and expensive and rarely extend into the supply chain," Milliken contends. (For more, click here.)
"Quite frankly, there''s still room for improvement here before reality catches up to the wonderful visions that vendors have offered," notes Ilya Mirman, vp of marketing at SolidWorks Corp. "We''re all eager to see more ''beef.'' Everybody wants to see a design process seamlessly integrated with the rest of the enterprise, with engineering change orders automatically updating pricing, scheduling, customer service inventory, financials, etc. Most vendors, however, haven''t delivered on the promise of tying things together. Yet it surely will come in time," Mirman believes.
"For every drawing an engineer creates, five or 10 people outside of that engineer''s design team need to review it," notes Mirman. Yet many companies "lack a simple, convenient way to share drawings and 3D models for review and approval without going through the pain of a big enterprise software install." SolidWorks has introduced an email application -- eDrawings Professional -- which allows collaborative design team members to exchange 3D drawings and models and "comment on them with a mark-up pen regardless of their CAD package. In fact, the recipient doesn''t need a CAD package at all." (For more, click here.)
Damon Canfield, president and CEO of New Product Innovations, cites corporate culture as another impediment to integration. "It''s going to require more than just the right tools to effect lasting change . . . Traditional organizational structures do not support integrated teams and very often the big picture vision is lost at the implementation level." Several issues slow the process, explains Canfield: "Silos or departmental walls exist that limit cross functional interaction. Cultural issues prohibit or limit the willingness of teams to succeed. Personalities and issues of tenure become stumbling blocks for success. While there are still only a few collaboration tools in place to support these efforts, these tools do function as translators to help break down barriers." (For more, click here.)
Yet even after years and billions of dollars of R & D "only 1% of all things we build today has a valid and reusable digital design," adds Raindrop Geomagic president and CEO Ping Fu. "There is still much to do in 3D geometry processing before it can reach a level of maturity comparable to signal processing (1D) and image processing (2D)."
She regards the Internet as a "communication tool, not part of a technology and process that will advance digital design. It is about time for those of us working on 3D design technologies to solve fundamental problems that will improve design and manufacturing."
Still, progress is reported on the integration front. Closed-loop manufacturing eliminates the barrier between parts and digital models, connecting CAD, CAM, CAE, and CAI systems. "Manufacturers can move easily between the physical part or mold and the digital model at every stage of the product development process," Ping Fu observes. (For more, click here.)
Rockwell Software product manager Jason Weber tells IEN that users of different systems no longer have to recreate "tags, project structures, and other data," since Rockwell Software''s FactoryTalk Directory makes such information available in HMI, communication, and business applications.
"One of the cornerstones of collaborative manufacturing management is communications. Independently owned and operated systems build components that become part of a single product," notes Ron Bliss, Logix/NetLinx marketing manager at Rockwell Automation. "On a single manufacturing floor this means that cells of automation must be tied together and linked to create a single cohesive system. Open networking standards such as DeviceNet, ControlNet, and EtherNet/IP simplify the integration and provide seamless movement of information from the smallest device on the plant floor all the way up to MIS systems."
Shorter product life cycles and mass customization are "driving manufacturers to more flexible and configurable equipment," Bliss adds. "Networking becomes the primary focus as smaller modules of control are plugged together to create an integrated solution." (For more, click here.)
Simulation software is also addressing problems related to integrating design with the industrial enterprise. ANSYS'' variational design technology studies the "effects of design variation on performance," according to product marketing manager Barry Christenson. "ANSYS software users can now very quickly take apart and study the parameters of a design and check the effects and changes on overall performance. What used to take days now takes a matter of hours."
Engineers also are turning to probabilistic design as a collaborative tool. "With this type of technology, the process engineering and product engineers study how the effects of manufacturing and material property variations impact product performance," Christenson says. "This is a natural selection for customers seeking a Six Sigma solution for their design process. Probabilistic design links product design and the manufacturing process." (For more, click here.)
Rockwell''s Arena software combines process simulation and optimization technologies, helping "demonstrate, predict, and measure system performance . . . under varying conditions and decision criteria before implementation on ''live'' operations," adds Tim Reckinger, business manager of design automation at Rockwell Software.
HED Inc has collaborated with its customers for years, CEO Carl Riggio observes. "Our goal is to insure the total supply chain is closely involved to add value to the project." After a prototype is developed, the "HED team works with the customer engineers to refine the design and develop the approach to merge the control system into the overall production process." HED''s configurator software allows custom tailoring. (For more, click here.)
Instron uses the Internet both during R & D and in the product data management phase. "Sharing design details via the web allows partners to truly collaborate on a project," comments Instron general manager Yahya Gharagozlou. "Because the design is seen during the early stages when changes can be easily implemented and without affecting an already built model/prototype, it saves both time and money." On the product data management side, the web provides "two-way communication between users and engineers; field tested instruments can be reviewed, and that feedback can be disseminated to the engineers. The data is used to confirm successful designs, as well as to make recommended design enhancements and changes."
Materials testing has never been more important. "Dust particles and debris are often microscopic and, without nanomechanical testing, there is no way to anticipate damage and wear," states Gharagozlou. Instron''s 5848 MicroTester can measure the mechanical properties of atomic and molecular level materials. Instron uses the web to collaborate with its partners first during R & D phase, and then to ensure quality product data management in the field. (For more, click here.)
Brown & Sharpe Inc integrates design and manufacturing to reduce costs through standardization. The company scrutinizes "every part and process in our manufacturing operation, with the goal of reducing the number of components in our coordinate measuring machines (CMMs) with a resulting reduction in assembly time," notes Brown & Sharpe''s David H. Genest. For example, the new GLOBAL line of CMMs "are built with 20% fewer parts than traditional CMMs," Genest point out. (For more, click here.)
Product Life Management (PLM) seems likely to remain influential in design -- in theory, if not practice. "Firms that approach product design with an eye toward product life cycle management will find that their design becomes more anticipatory," says Canfield. "Embodiments will have product specifications that include product life cycle features instead of just addressing the version at hand. For example, first generations may include modularity that supports an eventual family of products. This will allow companies to get products to market much more quickly."
The full benefits of PLM may be limited to larger companies, however. Mirman believes that "only the largest, most sophisticated companies can really benefit from an enterprise PLM application. Small and medium-sized companies, which easily account for more than 80% of the companies in the world, will continue to be design-centric. They aren''t looking for yet another enterprise software application to install and manage. They just need better, faster design systems and better ways to collaborate with outside partners."
And Ping Fu argues that the design-focused approach is appropriate. "Design should play a bigger role in product life cycle, not the other way around," she states. "There is no way to manage a product life cycle effectively if the design is bad in the first place and the product cannot be manufactured profitably."